Gazan city of Khan Yunis is almost completely leveled, satellite images show
DocumentIsrael's ground offensive has caused massive destruction in the Gaza Strip. Recent satellite photos show that the Israeli military has nearly completely razed the second-largest city in the Palestinian enclave.
Khan Yunis is now nothing but ruins. Satellite photos taken in recent days revealed that the Israeli army has nearly completely razed the second-largest city in the Gaza Strip, located in the enclave's south, as well as the surrounding municipalities. Its area spans more than 100 square kilometers. The city had a population of 400,000 residents before the war.
In April 2024, the newspaper Libération reported that "after the Israeli troops' withdrawal, thousands of residents of the southern Gaza city discovered the apocalyptic landscape left by months of fierce fighting between the [Israeli army] and Hamas." At the time, the city's civil defense organization issued a call to the United Nations for equipment to extract dead bodies, most of which, according to them, were stuck under the debris, in an advanced state of decomposition.
The most significant destruction has occurred in the neighboring towns of Bani Suheila and Abasan al-Kabira, where most buildings have been destroyed, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Another town, Khuza'a, has been completely leveled.
"It appears that most of the destruction was done by bulldozers and the like," Haaretz wrote, adding that, in recent months, the Israeli "military has greatly accelerated the pace of destruction in southern Gaza, using private contractors that earn a profit of thousands of shekels per building razed."
In recent weeks, the demolitions of homes, along with aerial bombardments, have been "the only operational activity that has been carried out systematically" by the Israeli army in Gaza, according to Haaretz. "Hundreds of bulldozers, excavators, and armored Israeli Caterpillar D9 bulldozers continue their efforts to make Gaza uninhabitable for years to come."
According to Haaretz, the Israeli army has offered to pay bulldozer and excavator operators 2,500 shekels (about $750) to demolish a building up to three stories high and 5,000 shekels for taller structures. "Many people are being recruited. (...) Fortunately, there is still plenty of work," an entrepreneur told the Israeli economic newspaper TheMarker.
The Palestinian enclave has been completely devastated by Israel's military campaign since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. According to an estimate from UNOSAT, the UN's satellite center, around 70% of the total structures in Gaza had been destroyed or damaged as of April 2025, or "258,201 estimated damaged housing units."
Israeli far-right leaders held a public meeting at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem on Tuesday, July 22, to discuss a plan to transform the Gaza Strip into a "riviera," at a time when the territory's residents are facing famine. Among those present were Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Jewish supremacist Daniella Weiss, a staunch advocate for Jewish settlements in Gaza. The detailed plan presented at the meeting provides for the construction of housing units for 1.2 million Israelis, as well as the development of industrial and agricultural zones and tourist complexes on the coast.
In February, Donald Trump proposed that the United States take control of the Gaza Strip, which has largely been destroyed by Israeli bombings, in order to turn it into "the Riviera of the Middle East," after first displacing the Palestinians to Egypt or Jordan. Such remarks could constitute "direct incitement to commit a crime against humanity," according to experts.