Forensic Architecture’s spatial analysis finds that Israel has attacked 57% of health facilities and 71% of shelters in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023

11/21/2024 / By Belle Carter

The Israeli genocidal operations in Gaza have already destroyed 36 percent of the area of Gaza, as its military attacked 57 percent of medical infrastructure and 71 percent of shelters since the war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023.

This was reflected in the recently released spatial analysis of the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza by the University of London-based research agency Forensic Architecture. Citizen journalist and filmmaker Robin Monotti covered the analysis, which was shared on X, formerly Twitter.

The patterns they have observed about Israel’s military conduct in the enclave indicate a systematic and organized campaign to destroy life, conditions necessary for life and life-sustaining infrastructure, the analysis that also included a “cartography of genocide” indicated.

According to the analysis, they used the term “genocide” within the meaning developed by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, who was instrumental in the definition formulated in Article II of the Genocide Convention. (Related: South Africa files 750 pages of evidence against Israel in ICJ genocide case.)

He said that genocide signifies a coordinated plan of action aimed at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, to annihilate the groups themselves.

From last year’s initial retaliation of Israel to the Hamas attack, 57 percent of health facilities were attacked, leaving 45 of them damaged and 18 destroyed of 110. Seventy-one percent of shelters were attacked and 219 of 353 were damaged and 31 were destroyed.

Utilities (152/605), schools (91/564), university facilities (18/44), government buildings (20/45), religious institutions (130/341) and cultural sites (30/44) have been attacked and successfully destroyed by Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu’s troops.

Meanwhile, 47.3 percent of roads have been damaged in North Gaza and 33.7 percent in South Gaza as of Nov. 7.

FORENSIC ARCHITECTURE:
Report: A Spatial Analysis of the Israeli Military’s Conduct in Gaza since October 2023:
“The patterns we have observed concerning Israel’s military conduct in Gaza indicate a systematic and organised campaign to destroy life, conditions necessary for life,… pic.twitter.com/nd5RbmHFAZ

— Robin Monotti (@robinmonotti) November 13, 2024

They also monitored the patterns of Israel’s aerial bombing campaign. According to the analysis, strikes correlated with the time at which a higher density of civilians would be expected to be present, with residential areas being hit more at night and commercial spaces during operating hours.

The study also noted that the attacks to the south of Wadi Gaza increased after it ordered civilians from the north to evacuate to the south. Also, areas near critical infrastructure were targeted and repeated damage to service roads immediately surrounding the said infrastructure was observed. Similarly, repeated destruction of buildings in the same vicinity led to the accumulation of debris surrounding the infrastructure.

Israel’s conscious effort to target systems of humanitarian aid delivery and distribution

Elsewhere in the research, it was indicated how Israel targeted sites and systems of humanitarian aid delivery and distribution when and where they became the main mode of aid facilitation.

“We observed that the Israeli military’s targeting of aid followed a pattern of overlapping phases, during which attacks on the specified aid categories intensified from October to November 2023,” the Forensic Architecture report stated.

According to the analysis, bakeries in the north of Gaza were targeted when they played a critical role in aid distribution. By mid-November, there were no official bakeries still in operation in Gaza City.

Up until January this year, shelters were targeted when they assumed a central role in housing people displaced by Israeli attacks and facilitating the receipt and preparation of food aid.

By February, Palestinian police officers, who served as aid personnel were targeted when they played a critical role in escorting aid convoys.

The following month, civilians gathering for aid near the Netzarim corridor checkpoints were repeatedly targeted. Also, aid administrators from organizations that took up responsibility for facilitating aid delivery and distribution were targeted. Attacks on these personnel were reportedly extensive enough to eliminate their key administrators or force them to stop their operations.

Aid distribution and storage sites, including warehouses and markets, were also targeted when they were actively operating to supply civilians with food. There were notable severe attacks on the Rafah crossing, Karem Abu Salem/Kerem Shalom crossing and markets during periods of increased aid-entering.

In May, Israeli vigilantes attacked aid convoys passing through Israel and the occupied West Bank under the watch and sometimes with direct support of Israeli military personnel.

Increases in aid flow into Gaza coincided with an increase in Israel’s targeting of Gaza’s aid distribution systems, including logistics, personnel and necessary infrastructure, the analysis added.

“The targeting of aid occurred in tandem with the Israeli military’s evacuation orders and coincided with its attempts to force Palestinian civilians to be displaced from the north of Gaza. The construction of the new internal border in the Netzarim corridor and the checkpoints within it supporting a one-way (north to south) movement of civilians coincided with the restriction of aid as a means of displacement,” it also included.

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