Satellite images show Gaza’s destruction
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Version 0 of 1. This weekend, a brief humanitarian cease-fire allowed Gaza residents and their international guests to survey the damage wrought by weeks of Israeli military strikes and missile launches from Hamas and other militant groups. "Many roads were barely passable, and almost silent," The Post's William Booth reported from Gaza. "Women did not wail. The men looked stunned. Their neighborhoods were reduced to ugly piles of gray dust, shattered cement block and twisted rebar." Photos from the scene are stunning and horrifying. There's another way to view the devastation before and after, however. The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) recently released some satellite images of Gaza that reveal just how damaged some parts of the Palestinian territory are. These images show a section of Gaza in the northeast, including the heavily targeted Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City. By contrasting images taken by the Pleiades satellite before the crisis on July 6 and others taken July 25, UNITAR estimated that more than 600 buildings in this area alone had been completely destroyed during the conflict, with 200 others severely damaged. The destruction is unmistakable, and it may not be isolated to the northeast. UNITAR had previously released images that appeared to show similar levels of destruction in central Gaza. |