A Gaza City Neighborhood Is Now a Wasteland, Satellite Images Show

With Israel’s expanded assault looming, Zeitoun already resembles other parts of Gaza that have been largely flattened in the war.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/world/middleeast/gaza-city-zeitoun-destruction.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20250828191405/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/world/middleeast/gaza-city-zeitoun-destruction.html

A large part of Zeitoun, a neighborhood in Gaza City, was still standing just three weeks ago. But as Israeli forces have expanded their military campaign, the area has been turned into a barren wasteland, according to satellite images reviewed by The New York Times.



While Israel’s government has announced that the military is planning a full-scale assault of Gaza City, soldiers have not yet moved into a majority of the city. In Zeitoun, forces have already been operating for weeks, dropping bombs on buildings and ordering residents to evacuate. A satellite image from Aug. 8 showed scores of buildings intact and what appear to be several tent encampments. A separate image of the same area from Aug. 25 showed many, if not most, of the buildings reduced to piles of rubble and the apparent encampments gone.

In recent days, Israeli tanks were seen in Zeitoun, according to satellite images. The scale of the destruction resembles that of places in Gaza that have been largely flattened over the course of the war, such as Rafah in the south and Beit Hanoun in the north. “It’s enormous,” said Fadl al-Saifi, 33, a resident of Sabra, an adjacent neighborhood. “It’s heartbreaking to see your friends’ homes in ruins.” He said that, in the past week, he visited Zeitoun to observe the damage.

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Eli Cohen, a minister in Israel’s high-level security cabinet, has said the Israeli operation in Gaza City should reduce the city to rubble. “Gaza City itself should be exactly like Rafah, which we turned into a city of ruins,” he told Channel 14, a right-wing television station, this month. Some of Israel’s European allies have condemned its plans for an expanded offensive.

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