Gaza Devastation Revealed by Google Maps Update
A recent update to Google Maps has revealed the devastating impact of the three-year Gaza war on the territory's infrastructure and its inhabitants. The images, taken in June this year, show widespread destruction of homes, businesses, places of worship, and infrastructure since a fragile ceasefire came into effect almost 12 months ago.
The photos depict massive damage to northern towns such as Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, as well as the destruction of places of worship like the Istiqlal mosque in Khan Younis. Major neighbourhoods in Gaza City, including Jabaliya and Shuja'iya, which were targeted in repeated Israeli offensives, are now uninhabitable.
According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, about 82% of structures, roughly 200,000 buildings, have been damaged, with about two-thirds of those destroyed. The estimated amount of rubble in Gaza is a staggering 61m tonnes, approximately 20 times the amount generated in all wars across the world over the last 18 years.
Jaco Cilliers, the UN Development Programme's special representative in Palestine, told the Guardian that 'the presence of human remains still buried under the rubble remains one of the most urgent humanitarian problems.' The conflict has resulted in the deaths of more than 74,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians.