Tents abandoned as Palestinians flee Israeli advance into Gaza City
Israel's advance comes as it prepares to mount a full-scale invasion of the city, where the UN says around one million Palestinians are sheltering.
Satellite imagery shows that entire tent camps in southeast Gaza City were emptied between 9 and 17 August as families fled the renewed attacks.
The video below shows the moment of an airstrike in southeastern Gaza City on 13 August. Sky News geolocated the footage to a building less than 200 metres from a major tent camp.
Another video, taken on 15 August, shows a strike on a building right next to the camp.
By the following day, almost all the camp's residents had fled, along with people sheltering at 30 other locations in the area.
Fresh vehicle tracks in the area indicate extensive troop movements on the ground.
The satellite image below, taken on 17 August, shows at least nine military vehicles in the streets surrounding one former tent camp.
Sky News counted 58 military vehicles in the area on 17 August, including 17 bulldozers.
The image below shows four IDF vehicles, including a bulldozer, parked next to the remains of one tent camp. Several nearby buildings had been levelled in the days beforehand.
Between 9 and 17 August, at least 132 buildings were destroyed in less than one square kilometre of the city.
It's unclear how much of the destruction was carried out by IDF bulldozers and how much was a result of airstrikes.
On Monday, eyewitnesses reported that Israeli tanks had made further advances into eastern Gaza City.
The advances came as Hamas said it had approved a ceasefire deal presented by mediators Egypt and Qatar. Israel has yet to respond to the proposal.
Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed his country's military to prepare for a full-scale invasion and occupation of the city in order to "free Gaza from Hamas".
The UN has said that the invasion risks "catastrophic consequences" for the estimated one million Palestinians sheltering in the city, while UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the plan would "only bring more bloodshed".
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
3 minutes ago
- The Hill
House Democrat heckled over Israel-Hamas war at town hall
Freshman Rep. Wesley Bell (D-Mo.) faced backlash over his support for Israel during a rowdy town hall event Tuesday night in downtown St. Louis. Videos from the event show Bell repeatedly interjecting 'Can we talk?' and 'Let's talk about it' as attendees shouted at him about the ongoing Middle East conflict and war in Gaza. 'When it comes to the word 'genocide,' I kind of disagree with it, because the bottom line is … Israel was attacked by an openly genocidal terrorist group,' he said at one point, referencing the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks. 'How do you get around that?' 'We need to end the war, we need to return every single hostage and Hamas has to go,' he continued. Bell joined the House in January, unseating former Rep. Cori Bush (D), who has blamed pro-Israel groups for her defeat. Bell, whose office didn't immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment on Wednesday, thanked attendees with a post on the social platform X acknowledging the rancor. 'Yes the conversations were passionate at times, but Democracy is messy & we have to passionately defend it,' he wrote. 'At the end of the day we're going to continue to fight for the ST LOUIS region & for our country!' The former St. Louis County prosecutor told local media after the event that he wasn't surprised by the disruptions. 'I thought it would be a little even more contentious to be perfectly honest, because there's a lot of people that are passionate about the issues, and we're seeing this around the country,' Bell said. He noted that lawmakers from both parties have faced similar disruptions across the country this year. 'People are scared; they're concerned,' Bell said. 'There's issues that they're passionate about, so let's have those conversations. It's important.' Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) was jeered during a nonpartisan event in her district earlier this week.
The Hill
3 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump calls Netanyahu a ‘war hero' – ‘I guess I am, too'
President Trump said he is a war hero, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, touting the U.S. strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities in June. The president praised Netanyahu in a Tuesday interview on 'The Mark Levin Show' then referenced the strikes that he has said obliterated Tehran's nuclear capabilities and set back the program for years. 'Bibi is a good man. He's in there fighting. He's fighting. You know, they're trying to put him in jail on top of everything else. How about that?' Trump told Levin. 'He's a war hero because we work together. He's a war hero. I guess I am, too.' The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November, accusing him of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. The president, who never fought in a war, added, 'the pilots came. I rewarded them. I brought them all to the Oval Office. The people having to do with that whole operation, which was so perfect, which was a total of, you know, just an obliteration.' The B-2 pilots who carried out the strike visited the White House for the Fourth of July holiday. The pilots carried out the unprecedented attack on Iran, which has been dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, dropping 30,000-pound bombs on underground nuclear enrichment facilities from so-called bunker busters that took off undetected from a base in Missouri. Following the attack, Trump hit back at an initial Pentagon assessment that damage to the three nuclear facilities only set the Iranians' nuclear program back a few months.
Los Angeles Times
3 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Israel to mobilize tens of thousands of reservists for expanded Gaza operation
JERUSALEM — Israel's military said Wednesday it would call up tens of thousands of reservists and extend the service of others for an expanded military operation in Gaza City. Defense Minister Israel Katz approved plans to begin a new phase of operations in some of Gaza's most densely populated areas, Israel's military said Wednesday. The scheme, expected to receive the final approval from the chief of staff in the coming days, includes calling up 60,000 reservists and extending the service of an additional 20,000 currently serving. In a country of fewer than 10 million people, the call-up of so many reservists carries both economic and political weight and comes days after hundreds of thousands rallied for a ceasefire. This comes as negotiators scramble to bring Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire ending 22 months of fighting, while international leaders and rights groups warn an expanded assault could deepen Gaza's humanitarian crisis, with most residents displaced, neighborhoods in ruins, and communities facing the threat of famine. A military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, said that troops will operate in parts of Gaza City where they have not yet been deployed and where Israel believes Hamas is still active. Israeli troops in the Zeitoun and Jabaliya — a built-up refugee camp in Gaza City — are already preparing the groundwork for the expanded operation. Gaza City is both Hamas' military and governing stronghold and one of the last places of refuge in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands are sheltering. Israeli troops will be targeting Hamas' vast underground tunnel network there, the official added. Although Israel has targeted and killed much of Hamas' senior leadership, parts of the militant group are actively regrouping and carrying out attacks, including launching rockets towards Israel, the official said. It remains unclear when the operation will begin, but it could be a matter of days and such a mobilization of reservists is the largest in months. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the objective of the war is to secure the release of remaining hostages and ensure Hamas and other militants can never again threaten Israel. The planned offensive, first announced earlier this month, comes amid heightened international condemnation of Israel's restrictions on food and medicine reaching Gaza and fears of another mass displacement among Palestinians. AP journalists saw small groups heading south from the city this week, but how many will voluntarily flee remains unclear. Some said they were waiting to see how events unfold before moving yet again, and many insist nowhere is safe from airstrikes. 'What we're seeing in Gaza is nothing short of apocalyptic reality for children, for their families, and for this generation,' Ahmed Alhendawi, regional director of Save the Children, said in an interview. 'The plight and the struggle of this generation of Gaza is beyond being described in words.' The call-up comes as a growing campaign of exhausted reservists accuses the government of perpetuating the war for political reasons and failing to bring home remaining hostages. The families of the hostages and former army and intelligence chiefs have also expressed opposition to the expanded operation in Gaza City. Most of the families of the hostages want an immediate ceasefire and worry an expanded assault could imperil bringing the 50 hostages still in Gaza home. Israel believes that 20 are still alive. Guy Poran, a retired air force pilot who has organized veterans campaigning to end the war, said many reservists are exhausted after repeated tours lasting hundreds of days and resentful of those not called up at all. Most now just want to return to their lives. 'Even those that are not ideologically against the current war or the government's new plans don't want to go because of fatigue or their families or their businesses,' he said. Hamas-led militants started the war when they attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Hamas says it will only free the rest in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. Arab mediators and Hamas said this week the leaders of the Palestinian militant group had agreed to ceasefire terms, though similar announcements have been made in the past that did not lead to a lasting truce. Egypt and Qatar have said they have been waiting for Israel's response to the ceasefire proposal. 'The ball is now in Israel's court,' Egyptian Foreign Minister Bader Abdelattay said Tuesday. An Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media said Israel is in constant contact with the mediators in an effort to secure the release of the hostages. Netanyahu has repeatedly said he will oppose a deal that doesn't include the 'complete defeat of Hamas.' More than 62,122 people have been killed during Israel's 22-month offensive, Gaza's Health Ministry said on Monday. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The ministry does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants, but says women and children make up around half of them. In addition to that toll, 154 adults have died of malnutrition-related causes since late June, when the ministry began counting such deaths, and 112 children have died of malnutrition-related causes since the war began. Israel's far-right national security minister on Wednesday released footage of Israeli prisons showing images of Gaza's destruction to Palestinian inmates. A video posted on Telegram by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir shows him pointing to an image of Palestinians walking amid rubble and half-collapsed buildings, saying they were being shown to security prisoners. 'So they understand that the people of Israel are not messing around,' he wrote. Ben-Gvir's prison visit comes amid a string of provocative moves. It's less than a week after he published a video of himself admonishing an imprisoned Palestinian leader in a face-to-face meeting inside a prison, saying Israel will confront anyone who acts against the country and 'wipe them out.' Two and a half weeks ago, he visited and prayed at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site, triggering regional condemnation and fears that the provocative move could further escalate tensions. Netanyahu's government depends on backing from the far-right, which opposes negotiations for a phased ceasefire in Gaza. Ben-Gvir said Monday that Netanyahu didn't have a mandate to pursue such a truce. The far-right bloc nabbed a victory on Wednesday when Israel gave final approval for a controversial settlement project east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank. The development in what's called E1 would effectively cut the territory in two, and Palestinians and rights groups say it could destroy hopes for a future Palestinian state. Israel's military said Wednesday it had killed a Hamas militant who stormed a kibbutz and abducted Yarden Bibas, the father of three whose wife and two young children were also kidnapped on Oct. 7. The Bibas family became one of Israel's most closely followed hostage cases after body camera footage of the mother and her young children being abducted was circulated widely in Israel and abroad. The three were later killed during the war, while Yarden was released. In a statement, Bibas called the killing of his alleged kidnapper 'a small part of my closure' and said he was still awaiting the return of hostages held in Gaza. __ Lidman and Magdy reported from Tel Aviv, Israel and Cairo. Lidman, Metz and Magdy write for the Associated Press.
