Gaza | Satellite images prove how living conditions in Gaza collapsed – “We are fighting for survival”

In September it is still dry, but dark green fields spread around the small town of Beit Hanun. Olive groves dot the outskirts and backyards of the city. On the other side of the border in Israel, the kibbutz of Erez is colored by watered lawns.

Or so it was last year. Now the brown and calloused fields are split like pale scars by the roads built by the Israeli army. The olive groves have withered. Beit Hanun has turned into a desert.

Across the border in Erez, the yard lawns are still shining green.

Satellite images can help you get an idea of ​​the disaster that befell Gaza. In this article, new satellite images are compared with satellite images taken in September of last year. The old photos were taken before Hamas’ October attack on Israel.

Researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute Timo R. Stewart reinforces the story told by the satellite images: the situation is really bad and getting worse all the time.

“The damage is really extensive. The evacuation orders, the destruction of the infrastructure, road network, electricity and basic services have made living conditions really bad,” he says.

In addition to Stewart, HS has interviewed a Palestinian man living in Gaza for this article. The man’s identity is known to HS, but he appears in the story anonymously for security reasons, because he criticizes not only Israel but also the Hamas organization that controls Gaza.

in northern Gaza before the land was cultivated in the vicinity of the border. Now Israel clear out Wide corridors cutting through the territory to Gaza, and a kilometer-deep “buffer zone” is being built on the border.

All buildings and trees will be cut down in these areas. The land is being depopulated so that the Israeli villages on the other side of the border could be better protected, according to Israel. Few places in Gaza have remained untouched.

“Most of the northern part of the lane has been destroyed and people have been driven away,” Stewart states.

At the same time, the fields and olive groves, the prerequisites for Palestinian life, were destroyed.

“We Palestinians depend on olive oil and olive trees. Now there are no more trees in the lane,” says the Palestinian man interviewed by HS on the phone.

More than 75 percent of Gaza’s agricultural land no longer belongs to Palestinians in hand. More than half of the agriculture has been destroyed.

There is hardly any food coming to the area from outside, especially vegetables or fruits. According to the man, individual potatoes can cost tens of euros. Within the precincts of we are afraid famine.

“The situation affects children and the elderly in particular. How do they have enough energy to stay alive?”

Refugee tent villages have taken over the former open fields near the northwest coast of Gaza. Almost two million peoplethe majority of Gaza’s residents, have been forced to leave their homes because of the war.

The population of northern Gaza has mostly moved south. Israel has sought to divert people to the Al Mawas area, where it has declared a humanitarian zone. There, refugees live in temporary camps.

of the UN by At worst, the entire population of Savonlinna, up to 30,000 people, now lives in Al-Mawas in one square kilometer. The density corresponds to the world’s most densely populated cities.

“It’s been hit there too,” says Stewart.

The Palestinian man interviewed by HS lives in a tent village near Al Mawas. His 7- and 10-year-old children were sleeping when Israel struck at three in the morning a few kilometers away from their tent. The attack happened five days before the interview.

Parts of the rockets fell on those near the family’s tent.

“We are in the safest place in the entire area, and this is no longer safe either,” says the man.

The approaching winter also causes concern. According to the man, the refugees’ tents are badly worn. He’s afraid they won’t survive the winter.

You can’t even get clothes in the refugee camp.

“You can imagine how much children grow over the course of a year. We don’t have clothes for them. They are not brought here, and of course there is no market here where you can buy them.”

However, there is no other place for refugees. Refugees cannot get out of Gaza because Israel and Egypt have closed their borders.

The football stadium the green grass has disappeared and a small refugee camp has appeared on the field. The surrounding apartment buildings are angular ruins, the paved roads running between them are covered in gray dust. Many of the homes have been broken into piles of gravel due to the bombing.

Of the buildings in Gaza more than half has been damaged or destroyed in battles and Israeli airstrikes.

“I spent my whole life building a home for my family. Today I heard that it was destroyed,” the man says.

Normally, the man’s children would go back to school at the beginning of September, but not this year. Almost all schools and universities in Gaza have been destroyed in Israeli attacks.

“The entire education system is in ruins,” says the man who made his career as a teacher.

“I am really sad and disappointed when I see school children living in tent villages and I know that many of them have lost their parents.”

Stewart calls the scale of the devastation suffered by Gaza “extraordinary”.

“It should be compared to other examples of urban warfare,” he says, mentioning the traces of World War II bombings in Europe.

The destruction is especially visible in the Philadelphi Corridor on the border with Egypt. There, Israel wipes out entire residential areas to make way for a safe zone on the border.

According to Stewart, the stated reason for building the corridor is to prevent arms smuggling. Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu the argument about the necessity of the corridor is, however challenged from high up in Israel’s security sector.

Israeli authorities by Israel has found only nine tunnels that ran between Gaza and Egypt. All of the tunnels had been blocked by the Egyptian authorities or by Hamas itself before they were found.

Ceasefire negotiations Between Israel and Hamas are deadlocked, and no solution be in sight. At the beginning of September, Hamas killed six hostages. Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that there will be no ceasefire until Hamas is destroyed and the hostages released.

It can last. US intelligence by Israel has killed only a third of Hamas fighters. According to estimates, the vast majority of tunnels built by the extremist organization still exist.

Gaza Ministry of Health by more than 42,000 Palestinians have died as a direct result of the war. Most of them in Israeli attacks. Hamas runs the health ministry in Gaza, but so does Israel’s intelligence services have liked the numbers it produces in the correct direction. Deaths due to diseases and other consequences of war can be many times more. On the other hand, almost 1,500 Israelis have died.

Dissatisfaction with the Israeli government has increased and widespread demonstrations have been organized in the country. The government has to evaluated wanting to prolong the war.

in Gaza criticism has also intensified towards the extremist organization Hamas, which strives for power by means of force.

“Extremism punishes our people, and we don’t want extremist movements to rule us. Then when the genocide ends, we need a civilized state, a nation with a peaceful and independent government. I want to have elections here again and have the right to choose who will lead Gaza”.

The last elections held in Gaza were in 2006.

The man says that he has never been so uncertain about what the future holds.

“We are fighting for survival. We want to live a normal life, in peace.”