Israel-Hamas war: Satellite data shows Israel intensifying bombing of south Gaza
For three weeks, Israel has been bombing the Gaza Strip as part of its war with Hamas.
The two sides have published conflicting accounts of the toll taken by the airstrikes. Satellite data gives us an independent view.
Every 12 days, NASA’s Sentinel-1 satellite passes three times over the Gaza Strip, firing out radar waves and listening for their echo. Buildings typically bounce the signals right back, but rubble scatters them in all directions.
By comparing signals before the war with those taken more recently, we can estimate the scope and scale of the destruction.
This map shows what Gaza looked like before the war, its population densely clustered in Gaza City, in the far north, and the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.
Map of buildings in the Gaza Strip, with major cities highlighted. SOURCE: Open Street Map
By 13 October, six days after Hamas launched its attacks in southern Israel, much of Gaza City had been hit by airstrikes.
The satellite data suggests 15% of buildings in northern Gaza were damaged or destroyed in less than a week, along with 2% in southern Gaza.
That same day, Israel ordered all 1.1 million residents of northern Gaza to flee southwards to relative safety.
Since then, however, Israel has stepped up its bombing of the south.
The map below shows the estimated damage to buildings across Gaza on 13 and 25 October, with the most damaged areas highlighted in yellow.
Almost half of all new damage detected between 14 and 25 October was in southern Gaza (47%), up from 14% before the evacuation order.
While there was a decrease in new damage across the Gaza Strip during those two weeks, the level of destruction in southern Gaza increased by 85%.
A spokesperson for the Israeli Defence Forces declined to comment.
Many of those who fled the north after 13 October have ended up in the Gaza Strip’s second most populous city, Khan Younis.
Since then, satellite data shows neighbourhoods across the city have sustained damage.
The video below, uploaded to Snapchat on 24 October, shows smoke rising from behind a school in Khan Younis.
Sky News has verified the location of the footage, and satellite analysis shows that a row of buildings immediately behind the school sustained damage between 14 and 25 October.
The Gaza Strip has been under aerial bombardment since Hamas’s 7 October attack, in which the Israeli government says more than 1,400 were killed.
Israel says that Hamas is still holding more than 200 people hostage inside the enclave. Five British citizens remain missing.
The airstrikes come as Israel prepares to launch an anticipated ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, more than 6,500 people have been killed in the airstrikes – two-thirds of them women and children.
Sky’s satellite data suggests that one in four buildings in northern Gaza (25%) have been damaged or destroyed in the past three weeks, along with 8% of those in the south.
The Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City has been hit particularly hard.
This video below, uploaded to Snapchat on 20 October and verified by Sky News, shows the local high street in ruins.
From the satellite analysis, we can see that the video shows just a small part of the destruction in Rimal.
Map of estimated damage to buildings in Rimal, Gaza Strip, 25 October. SOURCE: NASA/Open Street Maps
Sky’s analysis of satellite data followed a method developed by academics and promoted by NASA.
This is a conservative estimate – Sky News has only classified an area as damaged if the satellite records at least a 30% decrease in surface smoothness over a 1,600 square metre area.
Damage to a single building, or even its total destruction, is unlikely to reach that threshold. Damage to the side of buildings may not be detected at all.
The Gaza Ministry of Public Works says that 27,781 housing units, or around 7% of the total, have been destroyed or rendered uninhabitable since 7 October.
Additional reporting by Sanya Burgess
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.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan for Israel to take full military control of the Gaza Strip has been condemned, amid fears a reoccupation could put the lives of Palestinians and the remaining Israeli hostages at risk.
Asked in a Fox News interview on Thursday if Israel would “take control of all of Gaza”, the prime minister replied: “We intend to, in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza.”
Latest updates from war in Gaza
“We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter,” he continued. “We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us and giving Gazans a good life.”
Israel already controls around 75% of Gaza and has largely sealed its borders.
To take full control, it would need to launch ground operations in the remaining areas that have not been destroyed, where most of Gaza’s two million population have sought refuge.
Israel’s security cabinet, which would need to approve the military operations, began a meeting on Thursday evening, but for now no official announcement has been made.
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Netanyahu on Israel’s plans for Gaza
Plan will ‘put hostages and soldiers in danger’
The plan has been criticised by many, including families of hostages being held by Hamas and a top Israeli Defence Force (IDF) official.
Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, said Mr Netanyahu promised her that he would pursue a deal to free the hostages.
She said in a post on X: “Someone who talks about a comprehensive deal doesn’t go and conquer the Strip and put hostages and soldiers in danger.
“Netanyahu and his partners are about to condemn [Matan] to death.”
Israel’s military chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, has warned against occupying Gaza, saying it would endanger the hostages and put further strain on the IDF, according to Israeli media reports.
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In an illustration of the kind of opposition Israel could face internationally if it purses the plan, a Jordanian official aid Arabs would “only support what Palestinians agree and decide on”.
“Security in Gaza must be done through legitimate Palestinian institutions,” the source said.
“Arabs will not be agreeing to Netanyahu’s policies nor clean his mess.”
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Israeli hostage families sail near Gaza
At least 42 more Palestinians killed by Israeli fire, say hospitals
It comes after at least 42 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes and shootings across southern Gaza on Thursday, according to local hospitals.
At least 13 of those people were seeking aid in an Israeli military zone where UN aid convoys are regularly overwhelmed by desperate crowds and looters.
An Israeli soldier, standing next to an Israeli flag, looks out across Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Another two were killed on roads leading to sites run by the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies.
The GHF said there were no violent incidents at or near its sites on Thursday.
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The war in Gaza began when Hamas killed about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – in its attack on 7 October 2023 and abducted 251 others. They still hold approximately 50 of those hostages – with 20 believed to be alive – after most of the others were released in ceasefires or other deals.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between militants and civilians in its count.
Vladimir Putin has played down the possibility of a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying that while it is possible, certain conditions must be met.
The Russian president was responding to an American proposal of a trilateral meeting between him, the Ukrainian president and Donald Trump.
The idea was floated by Steve Witkoff, the US president’s envoy during talks with Mr Putin on Wednesday, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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Mr Ushakov said the three-way option was “simply mentioned by the American representative during the meeting in the Kremlin”.
He added, however: “This option was not specifically discussed.”
On the prospect of meeting Mr Zelenskyy, Vladimir Putin said: “I have already said many times that I have nothing against it in general – it is possible.”
However, he distanced himself from any such meeting happening soon, adding: “But certain conditions must be created for this. Unfortunately, we are still far from creating such conditions.”
Pic: AP
Mr Zelenskyy offered to speak to Vladimir Putin in May, challenging him to meet in Istanbul for talks on ending the war in Ukraine – an invitation the Russian leader declined.
While a trilateral meeting appears to be off the agenda, Mr Ushakov said an agreement had been reached for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to meet “in the coming days”.
After the US president touted a “very good prospect” of the leaders meeting for Ukraine ceasefire talks, Mr Ushakov said on Thursday that Russian and American officials had started working on the details.
“At the suggestion of the American side, an agreement was essentially reached to hold a bilateral meeting at the highest level in the coming days,” he said.
“We are now beginning concrete preparations together with our American colleagues.”
Regarding a trilateral meeting, Mr Ushakov said: “We propose, first of all, to focus on preparing a bilateral meeting with Trump, and we consider it most important that this meeting be successful and productive.”
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Will Putin agree to Trump’s condition to meet Zelenskyy?
It would be the first time the two leaders have met since Mr Trump returned to office, and follows a three-hour meeting between Mr Putin and Steve Witkoff in Moscow on Wednesday.
Following the meeting, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it appeared that Russia was “more inclined to a ceasefire”.
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The Ukrainian president said he planned to speak on Thursday to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, as well as contacts from France and Italy.
He said he planned to discuss a ceasefire, a leaders’ summit and long-term security, adding: “Ukraine has never wanted war and will work toward peace as productively as possible.”
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A poll from Gallup suggests 69% of Ukrainians support a negotiated end to the war with Russia – an almost complete reversal from 2022, when 73% favoured fighting until victory.
Most said they were sceptical the war would end soon, with 68% saying they believed it was unlikely that active fighting would stop within the next 12 months.
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Trump vowed to end Ukraine war in first 24 hours of his presidency – nearly 200 days in, could he be close?
Seven hours is a long time in US politics.
At 10am, Donald Trump accused Russia of posing a threat to America’s national security.
By 5pm, Mr Trump said there was a “good prospect” of him meeting Vladimir Putin “soon”.
There had, he claimed, been “great progress” in talks between his special envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russian president.
It’s difficult to gauge the chances of a meeting between the two leaders without knowing what “great progress” means.
Is Russia “inclined” towards agreeing a ceasefire, as Ukraine’s president now claims?
Is Mr Putin prepared to meet with his Ukrainian foe, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, too?
The very fact that we’re asking those questions suggests something shifted on a day when there was no expectation of a breakthrough.
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Mr Trump repeatedly vowed to end the war within 24 hours of becoming president.
On day 198 of his presidency, he might, just might, be one step closer to achieving that.
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