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Traces of devastation: satellite images show the Middle East conflict

2021-05-24T17:49:35.288Z


So far, the ceasefire has continued in the Middle East conflict that recently flared up again. Most recently, militant Palestinians fired rockets at Israel, and the country responded with air strikes. Satellites document the destruction.


Enlarge image

The destroyed high-rise in Gaza on May 16 (slightly left of the center of the picture)

Photo: Planet Labs

Fares Akram is resting when the loud shouts startle him. The journalist works in the office of the US news agency AP in the Gaza Strip, most recently on many night shifts. Together with his colleagues, he reports on the recent massive resurgence of the Middle East conflict, on countless rocket attacks by militant Palestinians on Israeli territory and on the Israeli air strikes for self-defense and retaliation against the Islamist Hamas, right up to the ceasefire between the sides that lasted at night came into force on Friday.

The AP office has been housed in a twelve-story high-rise in the center of Gaza since 2006. Thanks to a generator there is at least electricity, air conditioning and running water. So that the way to the desk is short, especially in particularly stressful times, there are several bedrooms and rest rooms on the floor above the office space. On the Saturday before last, at just before two o'clock in the afternoon, Akram heard his colleagues shouting: "Evacuation, evacuation." When he joins them, many are putting on protective vests and helmets.

Previously, the Israeli military had warned the owner of the house: The people inside the complex should get to safety, they would soon attack the high-rise. Akram is the last to leave the office, the last to drive his car out of the underground car park, as he later describes it in the Guardian. Then he and his colleagues turn from reporters to victims: first, drones bombard the skyscraper, then F-16 fighter planes. The building collapses.

A high-resolution satellite image from the private earth observation company Planet Labs shows the destroyed building on May 16, the day after the air strikes.

Smoke is still in the air.

In addition to the AP editorial office and the correspondent of the Qatar-funded television channel Al Jazeera, the building also housed other offices and apartments.

According to the Israeli army, the Islamist Hamas military intelligence service also had "military resources" in the house.

The terrorist organization misused the media offices as human shields.

Hamas deliberately positions its military resources in the heart of densely populated residential areas.

For the cities and villages of Israel, the danger remains very real

On the other hand, AP chief Gary Pruitt said that within 15 years there had been no evidence that Hamas had used the building. “This is something that we are actively reviewing to the best of our knowledge and belief. We would never knowingly put our journalists in danger. ”It is still possible that the news agency was mistaken in its assessment. Israel's army has announced evidence to this effect.

The fact that the military did not present this immediately after the attack on the skyscraper is also likely to have something to do with the ongoing conflict. Israel continues to face the threat of Hamas rockets. Not all projectiles can be destroyed by the »Iron Dome« missile defense system on approach. For the country's cities and villages, the danger remains very real. For this reason, the military wants to inflict the greatest possible losses on Hamas until it "gets the message" and carried out numerous other air strikes in the past week before the announcement of a ceasefire.

The constant Palestinian attacks on the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon show how great the threat posed by Hamas rockets is. On May 11th alone, 137 projectiles were fired at the city, two people died and numerous others were injured. A large oil tank in an industrial area was also hit. A serious fire broke out that also affected the local facilities of the 254-kilometer Trans-Israel pipeline. Local residents were asked not to leave their homes because of the toxic smoke.

This large fire was also recorded from space by a satellite from Planet Labs. Incidentally, some of the oil in Ashkelon's tanks comes from the United Arab Emirates, which signed a corresponding agreement with Israel in September 2020. According to a report by the Jerusalem Post, the first delivery arrived in the Israeli port of Eilat just a few weeks before the renewed fighting broke out and was pumped through the pipeline.

The fact that satellites can document the devastation of the recently flared up Middle East conflict in detail has not only a technical component, but - like the whole, dodgy conflict - also a political one.

Until recently, a US rule, the Kyl – Bingaman Amendment of 1997, required satellite operators to publish only comparatively blurred images of Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The restriction, although loosened last year, is also one reason why map services such as Google Maps currently show cities such as Tel Aviv or Gaza much more blurred than Pyongyang, Tehran or Wolfsburg.

What is technically possible is shown by recordings like the ones published above, which have a resolution of up to 50 centimeters.

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-05-24

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