UN says 35% of Gaza structures destroyed or damaged

Satellite images from the United Nations Satellite Center’s analysis show 35 percent of the buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged due to the Israeli bombardment of the besieged Palestinian territory.

The center, known as UNOSAT, conducted an evaluation by utilizing high-resolution satellite images acquired on February 29. These images were then compared with the ones captured prior to and following the commencement of the Israeli campaign of death and destruction in Gaza.

The results revealed that nearly 89,000 buildings had been either damaged or destroyed completely.

“UNOSAT identified 31,198 destroyed structures, 16,908 severely damaged structures and 40,762 moderately damaged structures, for a total of 88,868 structures,” UNOSAT stated in its report.

This signifies a rise of close to 20,000 damaged structures in contrast to the earlier evaluation conducted using images captured in January, which revealed that 30 percent of all buildings had been damaged or demolished, as reported by UNOSAT.

The imagery also revealed that Israel has caused the damage of more than 100,000 residential units.

“These correspond to around 35% of the total structures in the Gaza Strip and a total of 121,400 estimated damaged housing units.”

Out of all of the Gaza Strip, Khan Younis has witnessed the “highest rise in damage,” the report said, and the “highest number of newly destroyed structures.”

“The governorates of Khan Younis and Gaza have experienced the highest rise in damage, with 12,279 new structures damaged in Khan Younis and 2,010 in Gaza.

“Khan Younis City had the highest number of newly destroyed structures, with 6,663 in total.”