2024: A year in satellite images
The OSINT team at Sky News uses satellite images, video and publicly available data to verify and investigate breaking stories.
Whether helping inform out coverage of conflicts in the middle east, or showing the scale of damage caused by hurricanes and floods, satellite images have been an important resource throughout the year.
As 2024 comes to an end, we have compiled some of the most striking and informative examples seen this year.
January: Earthquake hits Japan’s Noto Peninsula
Pic: Maxar
On 1 January, a magnitude 4.9 earthquake affected the Noto Peninsula in Japan.
It killed more than 500 people, and cased substantial damage to buildings in the area.
February: First commercial mission to the moon lands
Pic: NASA
On 22 February, the first commercial mission to the moon landed.
Odysseus, a Nova-C lander owned by Intuitive Machines, was photographed by NASA on 24 February after its arrival to the moon’s southern polar region.
This was the first time that a private company has successfully sent a spacecraft to the moon.
March: Container ship hits Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore
Pic: Maxar
On 26 March, the container ship Dali hit Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to collapse. This killed six maintenance workers.
The cost of replacing the bridge has been estimated to be close to $2bn.
April: Eclipse seen over Mexico and the Pacific Ocean
Pic: NASA
On 8 April, a total solar eclipse passed across North America. Caused by an alignment in the positions of the sun and moon, the phenomenon was visible in Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Its shadow was photographed by NASA as it passed over the Pacific Ocean and the eastern coast of Mexico.
May – Israeli strike targets Rafah camp
On 26 May, an Israeli airstrike targeted an area housing displaced people near the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.
At least 45 people were killed in this strike, with many more injured. Images from the scene caused widespread international backlash. Israel said it was targeting senior Hamas commanders.
Investigations by Sky News and other outlets subsequently found that the munition used was an American-made GBU-39 bomb.
June: Volcanic eruption in Iceland
Pic: Planet Labs PBC
In mid-June, a volcano on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula erupted.
Coinciding with increased earthquake activity, the eruption resulted in a large lava flow visible from space.
July: The Olympic Games held in Paris
Pic: Maxar
In the summer, France hosted the Olympic Games in Paris. During the games several events were held close to the city’s famous landmarks.
This image, captured by Maxar, shows a temporary volleyball stadium in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
August: Wildfires approach the edge of Athens
Pic: Sentinel 2
In August, thousands of people were evacuated from the countryside surrounding Athens due to wildfires.
By the time the fires subsided, approximately 100,000 acres were burned.
September: Hurricane Helene makes landfall in the United States
Pic: NASA
On September 26, Hurricane Helene made landfall on the Florida Coast.
The storm left a trail of destruction across the southern United States, resulting in power cuts that in some cases lasted for days.
Satellite images taken at night by NASA show the storm passing over Florida and Georgia.
October: Flooding in Spain
Pic: Maxar
At the end of October, the Spanish city of Valencia and its surrounding areas experienced severe flash flooding.
This killed more than 200 people, and covered large areas with water, mud and debris.
Satellite imagery captured by Maxar on 31 October shows the scale of the flooding, with the south of the city being worst affected.
November: Mount Fuji without snow in November for the first time in 130 years
Source: Planet Labs PBC
Japan’s Mount Fuji made headlines this year, after its famous snow cap failed to materialise until 6 November.
Satellite imagery captured by Planet Labs shows the mountain without snow on 4 November for the first time in 130 years.
The appearance of snow on Mount Fuji occurred a month later than in 2023, when it was recorded on 5 October.
December: Russian military equipment gathered at airbase following fall of Assad
Pic: Maxar
In December, the Syrian civil war came to a sudden end as rebel groups captured all previously government-held territory within the space of a few weeks.
While the former dictator Bashar al Assad fled to Russia, Russian troops and equipment that helped prop up his regime were left in the country.
Following the fall of Assad’s regime, it appears Russia is in the process of withdrawing from Syria.
On 19 December, a satellite image captured by Maxar showed large amounts of Russian military equipment assembled for transport from its Syrian airbase.
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.
World
25% of young children and pregnant women malnourished in Gaza, charity says, as PM vows to fly critical medical cases to UK
A charity has warned 25% of young children and pregnant women in Gaza are now malnourished, with Sir Keir Starmer vowing to evacuate children who need “critical medical assistance” to the UK.
MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said Israel’s “deliberate use of starvation as a weapon” has reached unprecedented levels – with patients and healthcare workers both fighting to survive.
It claimed that, at one of its clinics in Gaza City, rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have trebled over the past two weeks – and described the lack of food and water on the ground as “unconscionable”.
Pic: Reuters
The charity also criticised the high number of fatalities seen at aid distribution sites, with one British surgeon accusing IDF soldiers of shooting civilians “almost like a game of target practice”.
MSF’s deputy medical coordinator in Gaza, Dr Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, said: “Those who go to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s food distributions know that they have the same chance of receiving a sack of flour as they do of leaving with a bullet in their head.”
The UN also estimates that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people seeking food – the majority near the militarised distribution sites of the US-backed aid distribution scheme run by the GHF.
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‘Many more deaths unless Israelis allow food in’
In a statement on Friday, the IDF had said it “categorically rejects the claims of intentional harm to civilians”, and reports of incidents at aid distribution sites were “under examination”.
The GHF has also previously disputed that these deaths were connected with its organisation’s operations, with director Johnnie Moore telling Sky News: “We just want to feed Gazans. That’s the only thing that we want to do.”
Israel says it has let enough food into Gaza and has accused the UN of failing to distribute it, in what the foreign ministry has labelled as “a deliberate ploy” to defame the country.
‘Humanitarian catastrophe must end’
In a video message posted on X late last night, Sir Keir Starmer condemned the scenes in Gaza as “appalling” and “unrelenting” – and said “the images of starvation and desperation are utterly horrifying”.
The prime minister added: “The denial of aid to children and babies is completely unjustifiable, just as the continued captivity of hostages is completely unjustifiable.
“Hundreds of civilians have been killed while seeking aid – children, killed, whilst collecting water. It is a humanitarian catastrophe, and it must end.”
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Israeli military show aid waiting inside Gaza
Sir Keir confirmed that the British government is now “accelerating efforts” to evacuate children from Gaza who need critical medical assistance, so they can be brought to the UK for specialist treatment.
Israel has now said that foreign countries will be able to airdrop aid into Gaza. While the PM says the UK will now “do everything we can” to get supplies in via this route, he said this decision has come “far too late”.
Read more:
WHO: Gaza faces ‘manmade’ starvation
UN: People in Gaza ‘walking corpses’
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Last year, the RAF dropped aid into Gaza, but humanitarian organisations warned it wasn’t enough and was potentially dangerous. In March 2024, five people were killed when an aid parachute failed and supplies fell on them.
For now, Sir Keir has rejected calls to follow French President Emmanuel Macron and recognise a Palestinian state – despite more than 220 MPs signing a cross-party letter to demand he takes this step.
The prime minister is instead demanding a ceasefire and “lasting peace” – and says he will only consider an independent state as part of a negotiated peace deal.
World
‘Almost like a game of target practice’: British surgeon says IDF shooting Gazans at aid points
A British surgeon who recently returned from Gaza has told Sky News that there is “profound malnutrition” among the population – and claims IDF soldiers are shooting civilians at aid points “like a game of target practice”.
Dr Nick Maynard spent four weeks working inside Nasser Hospital, where a lack of food has left medics struggling to treat children and toddlers.
The conditions inside the hospital, in the south of the Strip, have been documented in a Sky News report.
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Malnourished girl: ‘The war changed me’
Dr Maynard told The World with Yalda Hakim: “I met several doctors who had cartons of formula feed in their luggage – and they were all confiscated by the Israeli border guards. Nothing else got confiscated, just the formula feed.
“There were four premature babies who died during the first two weeks when I was in Nasser Hospital – and there will be many, many more deaths until the Israelis allow proper food to get in there.”
Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen in Gaza City. Pic: Reuters
In other developments:
• Israel and the US have recalled their teams from Gaza ceasefire talks
• US envoy Steve Witkoff has accused Hamas “of failing to act in good faith”
• France has announced that it will recognise the state of Palestine
• An influential group of MPs is calling on the UK to “immediately” do the same
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‘Starvation used as a weapon’
‘They were shells’
Dr Nick Maynard has been going to Gaza for the past 15 years – and this is his third visit to the territory since the war began.
The British surgeon added that virtually all of the kids in the paediatric unit of Nasser Hospital are being fed with sugar water.
“They’ve got a small amount of formula feed for very small babies, but not enough,” he warned.
Dr Maynard said the lack of aid has also had a huge impact on his colleagues.
“I saw people I’d known for years and I didn’t recognise some of them,” he added. “Two colleagues had lost 20kg and 30kg respectively. They were shells, they’re all hungry.
“They’re going to work every day, then going home to their tents where they have no food.”
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Ex-Gaza aid worker claims personnel shot at Palestinians
IDF ‘shooting Gazans at aid points’
Elsewhere in the interview, Dr Maynard claimed Israeli soldiers are shooting civilians at aid points “almost like a game of target practice”.
He has operated on boys as young as 11 who had been “shot at food distribution points” run by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
“They had gone to get food for their starving families and they were shot,” he said.
“I operated on one 12-year-old boy who died on the operating table because his injuries were so severe.”
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Gaza deaths increase when aid sites open
Dr Maynard continued: “What was even more distressing was the pattern of injuries that we saw, the clustering of injuries to particular body parts on certain days.
“One day they’d be coming in predominately with gunshot wounds to the head or the neck, another day to the abdomen.
“Twelve days ago, four young teenage boys came in, all of whom had been shot in the testicles and deliberately so.
“The clustering was far too obvious to be accidental, and it seemed to us like this was almost like a game of target practice.
“I would never have believed this possible unless I’d witnessed this with my own eyes.”
Palestinians brought to Nasser Hospital after being shot by Israeli forces, according to hospital officials and eyewitnesses. Pic: AP
Sky News has contacted the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.
An IDF spokesperson previously told Sky News it “strongly rejected” the accusations that its forces were instructed to deliberately shoot at civilians.
“To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians,” the spokesperson said, adding that the incidents are “being examined by the relevant IDF authorities”.
Read more:
Medics at Nasser hospital struggle to feed children
Gaza food situation ‘worst its ever been’
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Israeli military show aid waiting inside Gaza
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been managing the supply of aid to Gaza since Israel lifted an 11-week blockade in May.
It has four aid distribution sites, all of which are located in Israeli military zones, with journalists prohibited from entering.
More than 1,000 people have been reported killed while trying to receive food aid since the GHF took over, according to the UN.
UNRWA, its relief agency for Gaza, has heavily criticised the scheme.
Commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said: “The so-called ‘GHF’ distribution scheme is a sadistic death trap. Snipers open fire randomly on crowds as if they are given a licence to kill.”
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Just a fraction of the aid trucks needed are making it into the enclave, the UN has said, while multiple aid groups and the World Health Organisation have warned Gazans are facing “mass starvation”.
Mr Lazzarini quoted a colleague on Thursday and said malnourished Palestinians in the Gaza “are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses”.
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