This article has interactive before and after images that you can look at.

Earlier this week, several viral social media posts and news articles stated that Google had updated satellite imagery over Gaza.

The imagery shared in these posts and articles shows several areas, including the southern city of Rafah. Huge destruction is detailed in the images, including what appears to be entire neighbourhoods flattened

But the imagery wasn’t entirely new.

A Google spokesperson told Bellingcat that they regularly updated third-party satellite images and that the latest Gaza imagery had actually been available since June 2026.

Bellingcat has access to satellite imagery from commercial space company Planet Labs, which shows further destruction in Rafah after the June Google update.

The Planet Labs imagery also gives insight into destruction further north in Gaza as recently as September.

  • SpacemanSpiff@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    edit-2
    23 hours ago

    Honestly these images don’t even do it justice. There are some real armageddon-type images and videos online. Entire cities look like the surface of the moon.

    Like this. This used to be the town of Beit Hanoun. Now looks like Mars.

    Or this

    Or this

    • BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      23 hours ago

      These still put some distance to the reality. The ones filmed from the ground are even more compelling, that’s why we don’t see them often, they are scrubbed from YouTube immediately. In all those videos, the common factor is that you don’t see people and that’s by choice

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      17 hours ago

      Someone should make this into a VR experience. Maybe then people will actually grasp the reality for the people on the ground.

    • finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      17 hours ago

      Hey, it only takes 14 Gazan toddlers to hold up a bazooka. You don’t wanna be antisemitic by not dropping white phosphorous on them, do you?!

      /s

  • Pomal@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    38
    ·
    1 day ago

    Hundreds of thousands of hours of labor. Tens of thousands of lives. All because supremacy.

  • Silver@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    23 hours ago

    When I see these ruins I think about the children that were buried inder these buildings, many alive, alone, afraid, waiting for help that would not arrive because helpers would be sniped or double tapped. Just imagine their agony😢

  • Rat_in_a_hat@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    Not to downplay the amount of destruction, but this is after the US and Israel both bombed the Gaza strip in 2014 and didn’t allow enough material back inside to rebuild.

    So this is how Gaza is going to look for decades because of the US backed Israeli blockade that literally counts how many calories go into Gaza.

    The genocide has been constant for decades.

      • Rat_in_a_hat@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        12 hours ago

        Hi! You’re right, I misunderstood some of the context that was being discussed in a Q&A from a panel session with Dr Feroze Sidhwa (one of the doctors from the documentary American Doctor).

        They described the 2008-2009 assault (not 2014) as US and Israeli led. The context from that part is that the US provided a ton of logistical, material, and political support (blaming Hamas when Israel broke the ceasefire, passing unanimous motions in the House for arms shipments, opposing calls for an immediate ceasefire).

        • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          9 hours ago

          yeah I’ll never doubt the US supplied the weapons and aircraft and gas and bullets and oil to lubricate all of the above to israel - basically everything except for pulling the trigger… fml