Israel’s Strikes on Gaza Are Some of the Most Intense This Century (original) (raw)
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News Analysis
In the 19 days since Hamas attacked Israel, the Israeli military says it has struck more than 7,000 targets in Gaza. Palestinians accuse Israel of indiscriminately targeting civilians, but Israel officials say the strikes are aimed at eroding military infrastructure.
Gazans assess the damage from an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Wednesday.Credit...Yousef Masoud for The New York Times
Oct. 25, 2023
Israel’s 19-day bombing campaign in Gaza has become one of the most intense of the 21st century, prompting growing global scrutiny of its scale, purpose and cost to human life.
Since terrorists from Gaza raided Israel on Oct. 7, killing roughly 1,400 people according to the Israeli government, the Israeli military says it has struck more than 7,000 targets inside Gaza. That is a higher number than in any previous Israeli military campaign in the territory, a narrow enclave less than half the size of New York City. It also outstrips the most intense month of the United States-led bombing campaign against ISIS, according to Airwars, a British conflict monitor.
For Palestinians, the scale of the bombing campaign has appeared vengeful and unfocused, killing Gazans from across a wide spectrum of civilian life and destroying residential areas. The Hamas-run Gazan health ministry says Israeli strikes have killed more than 6,500 people, a number that if verified would make this the deadliest conflict for Palestinians since at least the Lebanon war of 1982.
But to Israelis, there is a necessity and a method to their strikes, which they say are not about retaliation but defense. The campaign, Israeli officials say, is focused on degrading Gazan military infrastructure that is often built near homes and civilian institutions. Officials and analysts warn that a potential ground invasion of Gaza could be even bloodier than the air war. They argue that strikes that ease an Israeli ground advance will help reduce the loss of life for Palestinian civilians and Israeli soldiers alike, once the invasion begins.
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The Hamas-run Gazan health ministry says Israeli strikes have killed more than 6,500 people. That number could not be independently verified.Credit...Yousef Masoud for The New York Times
Since Oct. 7, Israel has said it has targeted scores of Palestinian rocket launchers, command centers and munitions factories. It has also used powerful bombs to penetrate the surface in order to collapse a network of tunnels, hundreds of miles long, that armed groups like Hamas have dug deep beneath the territory’s most crowded urban centers.
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