Nearly two-thirds of Gaza buildings damaged: UN

Nearly two-thirds of the buildings in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed since the Gaza offensive began in October, the United Nations said yesterday.
“UNOSAT’s latest damage building assessment, based on satellite imagery… reveals that 151,265 structures have been affected in the Gaza Strip,” the UN Satellite Centre said.
“Of these, 30 percent were destroyed, 12 percent severely damaged, 36 percent moderately damaged, and 20 percent possibly damaged, representing approximately 63 percent of the total structures in the region.”
The assessment was based on comparing imagery from May 2023 onward with images from July 6 this year.
“The impact on civilian infrastructure is evident, with thousands of homes and essential facilities being damaged,” the agency said.
Israel’s campaign against Hamas has killed at least 39,498 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.
UNOSAT said the total debris in the Gaza Strip generated by the conflict amounts to approximately 41.95 million metric tonnes.
The figure is up 83 percent from the nearly 23 million tonnes estimated on January 7.
The conflict has resulted in 14 times more debris than the combined total from all previous conflicts in the Palestinian territory since 2008, UNOSAT said.
The agency estimated that 114 kilogrammes (250 pounds) of debris were generated for each square metre in the Gaza Strip.
Geneva-based UNOSAT says its satellite imagery-based analysis helps the humanitarian community assess the extent of conflict-related damage and helps shape emergency relief efforts.
Meanwhile, France yesterday urged its nationals visiting Iran to leave immediately, after Tehran accused Israel of killing a leader of Palestinian group Hamas on its soil, sparking regional tensions.
“Due to the increased risk of a military escalation in the region, visiting French nationals still in Iran are invited to leave as soon as possible,” the foreign ministry said.
The killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in a pre-dawn attack on Wednesday in Tehran has deepened fears of a regional war.
Tehran, as well as the Iran-backed Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah movements, have blamed Israel, which has not commented.
It has however claimed responsibility for the killing just hours earlier of senior Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Israel advanced last year the highest number of settlements in the occupied West Bank since the Oslo Accords of the 1990s, the European Union’s representative office in the Palestinian territories said yesterday.
Plans for 12,349 housing units moved towards approval in the West Bank, the EU office said, warning of the impact on a potential two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.