Israel faced accusations of
war crimes due to the large number of civilian casualties and the large percentage of civilian infrastructure destroyed.[4] In its defense, Israel stated that it utilized a wide-scale
evacuation notification system,[a] and claimed that its targets were used by
Hamas. By January 2024, researchers at
Oregon University and the
City University of New York estimated that as much as 62 percent of all buildings in the Gaza Strip had been damaged or destroyed.[6][b]
Background
Israel's bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip began within hours of Hamas militants and their allies
entering into Israel.[8] In prior conflicts — such as the
2014 Gaza War — Israel damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of buildings.[9] Rebuilding costs in prior conflicts have estimated to range in the billions of dollars.[10]
On 22 October, Israeli airplanes bombed the areas around the
Al Shifa and
Al Quds hospitals on a night described as the "bloodiest" of the conflict so far.[11][12] On 29 October, the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombed the area around the Al-Quds hospital.[13] On 30 October, Israel bombed the
Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital.[14] On 3 November, the Health Ministry stated 136 paramedics had been killed, and 25 ambulance vehicles had been destroyed.[15] On the same day, Israel
bombed a medical convoy outside of al-Shifa hospital.[16] The IDF claimed the ambulance was being used by Hamas, leading
Queen's University professor Ardi Imseis to state Israel needed to prove its claim.[17] On 6 November, at least eight people died in airstrikes on the
Nasser Medical Complex.[18]
On 23 October, airstrikes killed 436 people in the
Al-Shati camp and southern Khan Younis in one night.[19][20] By 28 October, the Israeli Air Force bombed residential buildings in the
Jabalia refugee camp without any prior warning, killing an estimated 50 people per hour.[21] On 31 October, an airstrike on the
Jabalia refugee camp was described as a "massive massacre".[22] On 13 November, an Israeli airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp killed thirty people, with Gaza's civil defence team unable to rescue injured people from the rubble due to a lack of equipment.[23] By 6 March 2024, aerial footage showed that the
Al-Shati refugee camp, which had been one of the world's most densely populated areas before the war, was in complete ruins.[24]
An airstrike at a
UNRWA school killed at least six people.[25][26] On 18 October, the Ahmed Abdel Aziz School in Khan Yunis was hit.[27] On 3 November, the IDF bombed the Osama Ben Zaid school.[28][29] On 4 November, Israel bombed the
Al-Fakhoora school, killing at least fifteen people.[30] On 5 November, Israel bombed and destroyed
Al-Azhar University.[31]
On 17 November, dozens were reported killed after an
airstrike on al-Falah School in the Zeitoun neighborhood, south of Gaza City.[32] A strike on the
Al-Fakhoora school reportedly killed at least 50.[33] Deaf, blind, and intellectually handicapped individuals were at particular risk of death by airstrikes.[34] On 13 December, a UNRWA school in
Beit Hanoun was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike.[35]
On 12 November, Israel used
earthquake bombs on an apartment complex in
Khan Yunis, killing at least thirteen people.[41] 26 people were killed in an airstrike of a residential building in southern Gaza on 18 November.[42] By 28 November, the
United Nations (UN) estimated 60 percent of all housing in Gaza had been destroyed.[43] Numerous casualties were reported in an airstrike on a residential building near
Nasser Medical Complex in
Khan Younis, with hospital staff reporting having to bury 40 bodies on the hospital grounds.[44] On 4 February, two residential towers in
Rafah were bombed, part of a series of strikes killing 127 people.[45] 104 people were killed between 21 and 23 February in residential building airstrikes conducted without prior warning.[46] In March 2024, a man in Gaza City described the situation there, stating, "Destruction on a massive scale, beyond any description. Our homes were destroyed. Nothing remained of our property".[47]
Places of worship
On 19 October, an
Israeli airstrike hit the
Church of Saint Porphyrius, where 500 people were sheltering.[48] On 8 November, Israel bombed and destroyed the Khalid bin al-Walid Mosque.[49] By 13 November 2023, at least sixty mosques had been destroyed by Israeli bombs.[50] In December 2023, an Israeli bombing destroyed the
Great Mosque of Gaza.[51] At least seven people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a
Rafah mosque full of displaced people on 23 February 2024.[52] Five people were killed in a mosque in northern Gaza that was bombed without warning.[53] The al-Riad mosque in
Khan Younis was heavily damaged by an Israeli bombing on 9 March 2024.[54] By 10 March 2024, more than 1,000 mosques had been destroyed by Israeli attacks.[55]
On 17 October, Israel conducted intensive airstrikes in southern Gaza, in areas it told residents to seek refuge.[56] Israel "pounded" areas in south Gaza it had declared as "safe zones", raising fears amongst residents that nowhere was safe.[57] On 20 October, Israeli continued to bombard south Gaza, and IDF spokesman Nir Dinar said, "There are no safe zones".[58][59] Following Israel's evacuation orders for Palestinians to flee northern Gaza, the IDF intensified its attacks on southern Gaza.[60]
Analyses by
CNN,
The New York Times, and
Sky News all found that Israel had bombed areas it had previously told civilians to evacuate to. The Sky News investigation also concluded that Israel's evacuation orders had been "chaotic and contradictory",[61]NYT found that Israel had dropped 2,000-pound bombs in those areas,[62] while CNN stated it had verified at least three locations Israel bombed after telling civilians it was safe to go there.[63]
On 5 January 2024, evacuees fleeing Israeli attacks in central Gaza stated the situation there was "hell on Earth".[64] One survivor of an Israeli airstrike wrote, "Even though that air strike did not kill us, it destroyed something inside us."[65] On 12 January, the UN Secretary-General for Human Rights stated that at least 319 internally displaced persons were killed and 1,135 injured by Israeli airstrikes while sheltering in UN shelters.[66] After an Israeli bomb killed two sheltering in a tent in
Deir el-Balah on 23 February 2024, a surviving family member stated, "It's just a tent. They are displaced and evacuated from the north here to seek refuge. They were sleeping. Why were they attacked? Even in tents, we are not safe."[67] After a bombing on tents in
Rafah killed eleven people,
Director-General of the WHOTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated it was "outrageous and unspeakable".[68]
Missing persons
On 15 October, more than 1,000 people were reported missing beneath rubble.[69] On 27 October, the
World Health Organization stated more than 1,000 unidentified people were buried under rubble.[70] On 3 December 2023, the
Palestinian Civil Defence stated the situation "beyond dire" as the organization was unable to rescue many people buried under rubble.[71] Individuals were rescued by aid workers after reportedly surviving several days buried underneath rubble.[72] Emergency responders stated that part of what made rescue so difficult is that Israeli bombs tend to "flatten entire buildings".[73] On 24 February, Dr.
Paul B. Spiegel stated that total death counts were undercounts due to the large number of people under rubble, stating, "We projected the number of deaths that may be missing, and it was probably up to about ten to fifteen per cent more."[74] On 26 February 2024, Israeli warplanes bombed and destroyed an emergency rescue machinery in
Beit Lahia.[75] According to The New York Times, "The buried make up a shadow death toll in Gaza, a leaden asterisk to the health ministry’s official tally of more than 31,000 dead".[76]
During the bombing campaign, Israel used
artificial intelligences to determine what targets the Air Force would bomb.[77] A system known as Habsora, "the Gospel", would automatically provide a targeting recommendation to a human analyst,[78][79] who'd decide whether to pass it along to soldiers in the field.[79] The recommendations can be anything from individual fighters, rocket launchers, Hamas command posts,[78] to private homes of suspected Hamas or Islamic Jihad members.[80] This would automate most of the target selection process.[81]
NPR cited Anthony King, professor of defense and security studies at the
University of Exeter, as saying this may be the first time AI-generated targets are being rolled out on a large scale to try and influence a military operation.[82]
Timeline
October 2023
15 October: In the war's first week, Israel dropped more than 6,000 bombs on Gaza.[83]
16 October: Airstrikes had killed 2,750 people, including more than 700 children, and wounded nearly 10,000.[84]
18 October: The death toll in Gaza had risen to 3,478.[85]
19 October: U.S. officials reported alarm at Israeli comments about the "inevitability" of civilian casualties and reminders about "civilian deaths from the U.S. atomic bombs" in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[86]
21 October: Israel intensified its airstrikes in advance of an expected
ground invasion.[87][88]
26 October: Israeli PM
Benjamin Netanyahu stated Israel had "already eliminated thousands of terrorists – and this is only the beginning".[89]
November 2023
17 November: Historian
Raghu Karnad cited reports that Israel had dropped 25,000 tonnes of explosives on Gaza since the beginning of the conflict, stating this was the equivalent of two
nuclear bombs.[90]
20 November: Satellite imagery showed half of
Northern Gaza had been destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.[91]
26 November: Israel had dropped an estimated 40,000 tons of explosives on Gaza since the start of the war.[93]
December 2023
1 December: In the hours following the end of the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas, 109 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes.[94]
2 December: The IDF stated it had struck at least 400 locations in Gaza since the pause had ended, including 50 in
Khan Younis in Southern Gaza.[95]
3 December: 700 were reported killed in the preceding twenty-four hours.[96]
8 December: 350 people were killed in the preceding twenty-four hours.[97]
9 December: the
Palestinian Civil Defence stated it only had one operational rescue vehicle left in the entirety of Northern Gaza.[98]
January 2024
6 January: More than 85% of Palestinians in Gaza, or around 1.9 million people, were
internally displaced.[99]
14 January: Israel's offensive had either damaged or destroyed 70–80% of all buildings in northern Gaza.[100][101]
30 January: At least half of all buildings in the entirety of Gaza had been destroyed or damaged.[102]
February 2024
1 February: The New York Times estimated that at least half of Gaza's buildings had been damaged or destroyed.[103]
2 February:
UNOSAT, the UN's satellite centre, found that 69,147 structures, or approximately 30 percent of Gaza's total buildings, had been damaged or destroyed by Israeli airstrikes, shelling, and demolitions.[104]
2 March:
Zeitoun, one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Gaza before the war, was in ruins, with one resident calling it "destruction on a massive scale beyond any description".[107]
15 March:
UNOCHA estimated that there were 23 million tonnes of debris in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israel's bombing campaign, which would take several years to clear.[109]
21 March: UNOSAT stated 88,868 structures, or 35% of buildings in Gaza, had been destroyed or damaged.[110]
31 March: The Wall Street Journal reported on a U.S. government memorandum indicating there is a lack of independent oversight to ensure U.S. intelligence is not used for airstrikes to kill civilians or damage infrastructure.[111]
Rebuilding
The Financial Times estimated it would cost billions to rebuild Gaza.[112]Mohammed Mustafa, the chief economist of the
Palestine Investment Fund, estimated rebuilding Gaza's homes alone would cost around US$15 billion.[113] The
World Bank and the
United Nations estimated in April 2024 that the war had caused $18.5 billion dollars worth of damage to Gaza's infrastructure thus far.[114]
Reactions
The Financial Times described northern Gaza as a "bombed-out wasteland", and Palestinians feared northern Gaza was becoming uninhabitable.[115][116] Israel's bombing was described as "unlike any other in the 21st century."[117]
On 6 January 2024, the United Nations
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian AffairsMartin Griffiths stated that Gaza had "simply become uninhabitable".[118] James Elder, the
UNICEF spokesman, stated, "I have never seen such devastation. Just chaos and ruin, with rubble and debris scattered in every single direction."[119]
The EU's top diplomat
Josep Borrell stated Israel's objective appeared to be making Gaza "temporarily or permanently impossible to live in".[120]Mary Robinson, the former-
president of the
Republic of Ireland and leader of
The Elders, called on the United States to cease providing bombs to Israel, stating, "Netanyahu is on the wrong side of history, completely".[121]
Analysis
Historian
Robert Pape stated, "Gaza will also go down as a place name denoting one of history's heaviest conventional bombing campaigns."[122] Scholars termed the destruction of Gaza a
domicide, leading the
UN special rapporteur on the right to housing to argue that
international law should be amended to consider domicide a war crime.[123][124] Israel's airstrikes were described as a
carpet bombing and "
indiscriminate".[125][126] An US intelligence report found half of the bombs dropped on Gaza had been
unguided bombs.[127] Experts stated the bombing campaign against Gaza had been the deadliest and most destructive in modern history, with Corey Scher of the
CUNY Graduate Center stating, "Gaza is now a different color from space."[128]The Wall Street Journal termed Israel's bombing the "most devastating urban warfare in the modern record".[129]
According to analysis by
Humanity & Inclusion, approximately 45,000 bombs were dropped on the Gaza Strip in the conflict's first three months, but with a 9% to 14% failure rate, several thousand
unexploded bombs lay amongst the ruins.[130]
A group of
UN special rapporteurs asserted that Israel's airstrikes are indiscriminate, stating that the airstrikes are "absolutely prohibited under international law and amounts to a war crime".[131] Israeli
military spokesmanAdmiralDaniel Hagari said that "while balancing accuracy with the scope of damage, right now we’re focused on what causes maximum damage".[132] A +972 Magazine investigation found the IDF had expanded authorization for bombing non-military targets.[133] Research conducted by Dr. Yagil Levy at the
Open University of Israel confirmed the +972 report, which stated Israel was "deliberately targeting residential blocks to cause mass civilian casualties".[134]
During two airstrikes on 10 October and 22 October, the IDF used
Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) in attacks described by
Amnesty International as "either direct attacks on civilians" or "indiscriminate attacks".[135][136]Marc Garlasco, a war crimes investigator, stated a JDAM bomb "turns earth to liquid".[137] On 12 January 2024, the spokesperson for the
Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights stated Israel's attacks were failing to account for distinction, proportionality and precautions, thus leaving Israeli exposed to liability for war crimes.[138]
In February 2024, the IDF bombed and destroyed the
Belgian government's Gaza development office.[139] In response, Belgium recalled the Israeli ambassador and condemned the "destruction of civilian infrastructure" as a violation of international law.[140][c] Scott Lucas, a professor at the
University of Birmingham, stated Israel's bombing campaign was in breach of the law of proportionality.[142]
Aftermath
The bombardment left behind a large amount of debris, including unexploded ordnance. An official from
United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), has said it could take up to 14 years to remove the debris, including the rubble of destroyed buildings. The war left an estimated 37 million tons of debris in a widely urbanized, densely populated area.[143][144][145]
^According to the
Goldsmith’s College research team
Forensic Architecture, rather than preventing civilian casualties, Israel's evacuation system had instead "produced mass displacement and forced transfer, and contributed to the killings of civilians throughout Gaza".[5]
^In northern Gaza, including
Gaza City, the number of buildings damaged or destroyed is as high as 80 percent.[7]
^Two weeks after the bombing, the Belgian Minister of Development Cooperation
Caroline Gennez stated Israel had still not responded to a request for an investigation.[141]
^
abBrumfiel, Geoff.
"Israel is using an AI system to find targets in Gaza. Experts say it's just the start". NPR.
Archived from the original on 20 February 2024. Retrieved 5 April 2024. The Gospel is actually one of several AI programs being used by Israeli intelligence, according to Tal Mimran, a lecturer at
Hebrew University in Jerusalem who has worked for the Israeli government on targeting during previous military operations. Other AI systems aggregate vast quantities of intelligence data and classify it. The final system is the Gospel, which makes a targeting recommendation to a human analyst. Those targets could be anything from individual fighters, to equipment like rocket launchers, or facilities such as Hamas command posts.
^
abBrumfiel, Geoff.
"Israel is using an AI system to find targets in Gaza. Experts say it's just the start". NPR.
Archived from the original on 20 February 2024. Retrieved 5 April 2024. A brief blog post by the Israeli military on November 2 lays out how the Gospel is being used in the current conflict. According to the post, the military's Directorate of Targets is using the Gospel to rapidly produce targets based on the latest intelligence. The system provides a targeting recommendation for a human analyst who then decides whether to pass it along to soldiers in the field.
"This isn't just an automatic system," Misztal emphasizes. "If it thinks it finds something that could be a potential target, that's flagged then for an intelligence analyst to review."
The post states that the targeting division is able to send these targets to the IAF and navy, and directly to ground forces via an app known as "Pillar of Fire," which commanders carry on military-issued smartphones and other devices.
^Davies, Harry; McKernan, Bethan; Sabbagh, Dan (December 2023).
"'The Gospel': how Israel uses AI to select bombing targets in Gaza". The Guardian.
Archived from the original on 2 December 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2024. Multiple sources familiar with the IDF's targeting processes confirmed the existence of the Gospel to +972/Local Call, saying it had been used to produce automated recommendations for attacking targets, such as the private homes of individuals suspected of being Hamas or Islamic Jihad operatives.
^Lee, Gavin (12 December 2023).
"Understanding how Israel uses 'Gospel' AI system in Gaza bombings". France24.
Archived from the original on 20 February 2024. Retrieved 5 April 2024. Yuval Abraham: It automates most of the target creation process, creating targets with life-and-death consequences, as you said, at a rate that was before humanly impossible.