this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2023
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Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza for nearly three months has destroyed 70 percent of the homes in the besieged Palestinian enclave, according to the Government Media Office.

No further details were provided but an earlier report said more than 200 heritage and archaeological sites were destroyed in the Israeli bombardment considered the most destructive in modern history.

About 300,000 out of 439,000 homes have been destroyed in Israeli attacks, a Wall Street Journal report said. Analysing satellite imagery, the report added that the 29,000 bombs dropped on the strip have targeted residential areas, Byzantine churches, hospitals and shopping malls and all civilian infrastructure has been damaged to an extent that they cannot be repaired.

“The word ‘Gaza’ is going to go down in history along with Dresden [Germany] and other famous cities that have been bombed,” Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago who has written about the history of aerial bombing, told WSJ.

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[–] ivanafterall@kbin.social 94 points 10 months ago (18 children)

Maybe I'm just getting soft, but I think it's been pretty wild to watch a government murder tens of thousands of innocents real-time.

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 52 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Those of us old enough to remember Rwanda have seen it before. I take issue with gov'ts who've also seen it before and still do sweet fuck all about it.

[–] stevehobbes@lemy.lol 45 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (12 children)

Rwanda, Serbia, Armenia, and still ongoing that everyone is ignoring, the Rohingya, Uyghurs and Sudan.

[–] Tosti@feddit.nl 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Russia is also marching 100's of thousands of their minorities and people of the Donbas to their deaths, and slaughtering Ukrainians while doing it, they are double dipping sort to say.

[–] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

World War 2 also had a little genocide issue....

The big difference is that we were supposed to be above this shit by now after 75 years of "never again".

Instead we've once again stooped down to the same moral level with the Ubermensch trying to expand their Lebensraum shit. And Westen governments are actually supporting it.

When I saw the Uyghur camps I didn't think "we could do worse than that" was an option.

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[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

The West only cares when it affects their geo-political interests such as access to natural resources or tying up another country in never ending war.

Edit: Hit submit way too early

[–] fosforus@sopuli.xyz 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Russia has murdered almost 20 000 civilians, perhaps around 500 000 soldiers in total (both sides) in its mindless war in Ukraine. Not all of them innocent certainly, but I'd guess at least 90%. And they're not even trying to protect themselves from anything.

And if you've been paying attention, this has been going for almost 2 years now. And still goes on. One best case scenario that Estonia recently presented in a report was that Russia will lose the war in 2 years. So if the rate keeps until then, we're looking at about a million deaths in total. Granted, Ukraine and Russia's combined population is a lot higher than the Gaza strip. Senseless deaths still.

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[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 44 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (7 children)

Article 2 of the Convention defines genocide as

... any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

—[United Nations] Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article 2

Wikipedia

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[–] slurpeesoforion@startrek.website 40 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Is there anything Israel wouldn't bomb? Just asking questions, here.

[–] xor@sh.itjust.works 12 points 10 months ago
[–] SulaymanF@lemmy.world 33 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Making Gazans homeless stops terrorism how?

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

Oh that's easy. You see they let Israeli Banks give all the loans for rebuilding. Then when the Gazans inevitably default because the IDF never left and everyone is still on food aid; they take the property back and sell it to Israelis. Then the IDF kicks them out and deports then under the color of law. Everyone pats each other on the back and they all declare mission Accomplished.

[–] Arete@lemmy.world 32 points 10 months ago (3 children)

The actual figure is "70% damaged or destroyed". Not a whole lot better, but there is a huge difference between a house with some broken windows and a pile of rubble. The article shouldn't be hyperbolizing - the situation is bad enough as it is without lying to us.

[–] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 31 points 10 months ago

To be fair, if someone blew out all the glass over the floor of my house and half of a wall is gone I think I would say

"Man, they destroyed my house."

Not

"Man, my house is partially damaged"

It doesn't have to be a literal pile of rubble, significant damage is enough to warrant (re)construction. Not being sure if the pillars are going to keep holding up your house doesn't sound very appealing

Despite that I would love to see new comprehensible satalite imagery like they did for Mauriopol which according to western media would be described as "precision bombing on military targets" I guess

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 24 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Israel has hit Gaza, which has an area of 141 sq miles, with 29,000 bombs. That works out to just over 205 bombs per square mile.

Just how many homes do you think only have broken windows and no major damage?

[–] CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Both this comment and the reply to it are irrelevant. Bombs aren’t spread over average areas, bombs aren’t all the same power of explosive, nor can any math tell us much about the effect of the bombs.

All of that can only be done by looking at satellite or overhead footage, assessing the average damage to buildings in that area, and then generalizing each square to write off a percentage of homes as unlivable.

Like other comments have said, we have to be careful about this because I’d prefer the correct number and not the larger number.

[–] cashews_best_nut@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

The ones that are buried under rubble are probably safe.

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[–] hglman@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)
[–] Anti_Face_Weapon@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

It's important to call out even minor misinformation, even when it's for the "right" side. Especially then, because we need to keep ourselves disciplined, or we will fall into the same trappings as the opposition.

[–] Arete@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Literally just a fact-check, unless you're disputing the original quote?

[–] hglman@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You are downplaying the human impact of a damaged home vs a destroyed one. Specifically, you categorized it as a huge difference. The effect of not having a home fit to live in is the same. Your comment heavily implies it's not actually that bad.

[–] Arete@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

"damaged" doesn't actually equate to being unfit for habitation. It spans a wide range from broken windows to barely standing.

The article is deliberately overplaying the human impact to get clicks and make money. I find that gross since the destruction should not need hyperbolizing. All I did was cite the actual quote, and I did so while explicitly emphasizing how bad the true situation is.

[–] Yerbouti@lemmy.ml 27 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They are creating the next generation of "terrorists".

[–] BOFH@lemmy.ml 20 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I was in the thick of it during the wars in Iraq (06-07) and Afghanistan (09-10) fighting and it was critical we avoid collateral damage to population and structures - you're absolutely right, it creates terrorists.

When things kicked off in Israel, even the US Administration, states to be careful with strikes. It's all of the hype surrounding Mossad and Israel's claim to fame when it comes to counterterrorism, I am shocked that they didn't utilize more strategic strikes and Special Forces to eliminate Hamas.

I definitely see them in a different light now.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Same here, 03/05 in Iraq and 2012 in Afghanistan. I was absolutely shocked because the place is only 7 miles wide. Their tactics are way overblown for such a small area, and then they seemed to take all the stuff we did in 2003 to mitigate civilian casualties and just toss it in the trash can.

[–] BOFH@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago

I agree with you. Tragic loss of life on both sides.

Thanks for your service.

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[–] raynethackery@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] go_go_gadget@lemmy.world 23 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Because Boomers can't take it with them.

[–] Anti_Face_Weapon@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

They just might.

[–] SpezBroughtMeHere@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

So why did we have to get everybody vaccinated? The boomer remover could have solved so many problems.

[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I thought the name boomer came from "baby boomers" but maybe the boom was the sound of bombs this whole time

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