by Mish Shedlock, Mish Talk:
After 29,000 bombs dropped, about 70% of homes and half of all buildings are in ruins.
The Wall Street Journal has some amazing scrolling and interactive before and after images.
Please consider The Ruined Landscape of Gaza After Nearly Three Months of Bombing
That is a gift link courtesy of the Journal. Here are a few snips.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
The war in the Gaza Strip is generating destruction comparable in scale to the most devastating urban warfare in the modern record.
By mid-December, Israel had dropped 29,000 bombs, munitions and shells on the strip. Nearly 70% of Gaza’s 439,000 homes and about half of its buildings have been damaged or destroyed. The bombing has damaged Byzantine churches and ancient mosques, factories and apartment buildings, shopping malls and luxury hotels, theaters and schools. Much of the water, electrical, communications and healthcare infrastructure that made Gaza function is beyond repair.
Most of the strip’s 36 hospitals are shut down, and only eight are accepting patients. Citrus trees, olive groves and greenhouses have been obliterated. More than two-thirds of its schools are damaged.
The destruction resembles that left by Allied bombing of German cities during World War II. “The word ‘Gaza’ is going to go down in history along with Dresden and other famous cities that have been bombed,” said Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago and the author of a history of aerial bombing. “What you’re seeing in Gaza is in the top 25% of the most intense punishment campaigns in history.”
Three months ago, Gaza was a vibrant place. Despite decades of Israeli occupation, sieges and wars, many Palestinians enjoyed living there beside the Mediterranean Sea, where they gathered in cafes and seaside restaurants. Families played on the beach. Young men crowded around TVs in the evening to watch soccer.
Today, Gaza is a landscape of crumpled concrete. In northern Gaza, the focus of Israel’s initial offensive, the few people who remain navigate rubble-strewn streets past bombed-out shops and apartment blocks. Broken glass crunches underfoot. Israeli drones buzz overhead.
In the south, where more than a million displaced residents have fled, Gazans sleep in the street and burn garbage to cook. Some 85% of the strip’s 2.2 million people have fled their homes and are confined by Israeli evacuation orders to less than one-third of the strip, according to the United Nations.
Questions Abound, Many Unanswerable
The immediate question on many minds is: Who’s to blame?
Some will blame Hamas for starting this war. Others will blame Israel for Palestinian suppression. No one will change anyone else’s mind.
Hamas wanted to provoke a response and it did. Many Palestinians cheered Hamas in Gaza and the US.
Chanting ‘700,’ Pro-Palestinian Activists in New York Fete Hamas Attack
Flashback October 9, Chanting ‘700,’ Pro-Palestinian Activists in New York Fete Hamas Attack
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators on Sunday in New York celebrated Hamas’s massive deadly terror attack against Israel, as supporters of the Jewish state held rallies to mourn and express outrage over the slaughter.
Several hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators rallied in Times Square, waving Palestinian flags and chanting “Resistance is justified,” “Globalize the intifada,” and “Smash the settler Zionist state.”
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” they chanted. Some made mock crying gestures toward the Israelis to taunt them.
Among the pro-Palestinian side, the mood was celebratory and spiteful. Demonstrators chanted “700,” apparently referring to the confirmed number of Israeli fatalities in the attack so far, and held up the number seven on their hands while making throat-slitting gestures. Others flashed victory signs with their hands while shouting insults.
Is anyone aware of Israelis marching on the streets cheering the death of over 20,000 Palestinians, flashing victory signs?
Palestinian Death Toll
On December 20, the BBC commented on What Gaza’s Death Toll Says About the War.
At least 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been reported killed since Israel began bombing the territory in the wake of Hamas’s 7 October attacks.
On average, nearly 300 people have been killed each day since the start of the conflict, excluding the seven-day ceasefire, data from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry indicates.
Israel began its military campaign in Gaza in the wake of Hamas’ attacks, in which 1,200 people were killed, most of them civilians.
“What we’re seeing in terms of civilian deaths has already far outpaced rates of harm from any given conflict we have documented,” said Emily Tripp, director of Airwars, an organisation which has monitored civilian deaths in wars and conflicts since 2014.
Current Estimate
The current death toll estimate is 21,672 Palestinians with 56,165 more injured. That’s roughly 1 percent of the 2.2 million Gaza population.
With 70 percent of Gaza homes destroyed it will likely take decades to reconstruct. But before reconstruction can begin, the war must stop.
