Worse than Dresden – WSJ Analyzes Israel’s Destruction in Gaza

December 31, 2023

The destruction generated by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. (Photo: Esmaeel A Omar, via Eyes on Palestine)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

“As many as 80% of the buildings in northern Gaza, where the bombing has been most severe, are damaged or destroyed, a higher percentage than in Dresden.”

The destruction generated by Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip is comparable to the bombing of Germany during World War II, according to a report published by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday.

“Nearly 70% of Gaza’s 439,000 homes and about half of its buildings have been damaged or destroyed,” the WSJ wrote, adding that Most of the strip’s 36 hospitals are shut down, and only eight are accepting patients.

The American newspaper quotes Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago and the author of a history of aerial bombing, as saying that, “The word ‘Gaza’ is going to go down in history along with Dresden and other famous cities that have been bombed.”

“What you’re seeing in Gaza is in the top 25% of the most intense punishment campaigns in history,” Pape reportedly added.

The Wall Street Journal further reported that, according to the analysis of satellite data by remote-sensing experts at the City University of New York and Oregon State University, “as many as 80% of the buildings in northern Gaza, where the bombing has been most severe, are damaged or destroyed, a higher percentage than in Dresden.”

According to US officials cited in the report, “Israel dropped 29,000 weapons on Gaza in a little over two months”. 

“By comparison, the US military dropped 3,678 munitions on Iraq from 2004 to 2010,” the report added.

Analyzing the kind of weapons that were used to inflict “maximum damage”, as announced by Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari, the WSJ reported that “Among the weapons provided by the US to Israel during the Gaza war are 2,000-pound ‘bunker buster’ bombs designed to penetrate concrete shelters, which military analysts said are usually used to hit military targets in more sparsely populated areas.”

The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 21,822 Palestinians have been killed, and 56,451 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7. 

Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

(The Palestine Chronicle)