Israeli destruction of Gaza surpasses that of Mariupol, WW2 Germany

The Israeli military invasion in Gaza, experts say, now sits among the deadliest and most destructive in history.

In just over two months, Israel has wreaked more destruction in Gaza than Ukraine's Mariupol or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II.

It has killed more civilians than the US-led coalition did in its three-year conflict against Daesh in Aleppo.

The Israeli military has said little about what kinds of bombs and artillery it is using in Gaza.

But from blast fragments found on-site and analyses of strike footage, experts are confident that the vast majority of bombs dropped on the besieged enclave are US-made.

They say the weapons include 2,000-pound [900-kilogramme] "bunker-busters" that have killed hundreds in densely populated areas.

The Biden administration has quietly continued to supply arms to Israel despite acknowledging that Israel was losing international legitimacy for its "indiscriminate bombing."

Here's a look at what is known so far about Israel's war on Gaza.

How much destruction is there in Gaza?

Israel's war has destroyed over two-thirds of all structures in northern Gaza and a quarter of buildings in the southern area of Khan Younis, according to an analysis of Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite data by Corey Scher of the CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University, experts in mapping damage during wartime.

The percentage of damaged buildings in the Khan Younis area nearly doubled in just the first two weeks of Israel's southern invasion, they said.

That includes tens of thousands of homes as well as schools, hospitals, mosques, chuches and stores. UN monitors have said that about 70 percent of school buildings across Gaza have been damaged. At least 56 damaged schools served as shelters for displaced civilians. Israeli strikes damaged 110 mosques and three churches, the monitors said.

"Gaza is now a different colour from space. It's a different texture," said Scher, who has worked with Van Den Hoek to map destruction across several war zones, like Mariupol.

How does the destruction stack up historically?

By some measures, destruction in Gaza has outpaced Allied bombings of Germany during World War II.

Between 1942 and 1945, the allies attacked 51 major German cities and towns, destroying about 40-50 percent of their urban areas, said Robert Pape, a US military historian.

Pape said this amounted to 10 percent of buildings across Germany, compared to over 33 percent across Gaza, a densely populated territory of just 360 square kilometres.

"Gaza is one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history," said Pape. "It now sits comfortably in the top quartile of the most devastating bombing campaigns ever."

The US-led coalition's 2017 assault to expel Daesh terror group from the Iraqi city of Mosul was considered one of the most intense attacks on a city in generations. That nine-month battle killed around 10,000 civilians, a third of them from coalition bombardment, according an Associated Press investigation at the time.

During the 2014-2017 campaign to defeat Daesh in Iraq, the coalition carried out nearly 15,000 strikes across the country, according to Airwars, a London-based independent group that tracks recent conflicts. By comparison, the Israeli military said last week it has conducted 22,000 strikes in Gaza.

What types of bombs are being used?

The Israeli military has not specified what it is using. It says every strike is cleared by legal advisers to make sure it complies with international law.

"We choose the right munition for each target — so it doesn't cause unnecessary damage," claimed the army's chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

Weapons experts have been able to draw conclusions by analysing blast fragments found on-site, satellite images and videos circulated on social media. They say the findings offer only a peek into the full scope of the air war.

So far, fragments of American-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions [JDAM] bombs and smaller diameter bombs have been found in Gaza, according to Brian Castner, a weapons investigator with Amnesty International.

The JDAM bombs include precision-guided 1,000- and 2,000-pound [450-kilogramme and 900-kilogramme] "bunker-busters."

"It turns earth to liquid," said Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon defence official and a war crimes investigator for the UN. "It pancakes entire buildings."

He said the explosion of a 2,000-pound bomb in the open means "instant death" for anyone within about 30 metress [100 feet]. Lethal fragmentation can extend for up to 365 metres [1,200 feet].

In an October 31 strike on the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya, experts say a 2,000-pound bomb killed over 100 civilians.

Experts have also identified fragments of SPICE [Smart, Precise Impact, Cost-Effective] 2000-pound bombs, which are fitted with a GPS guidance system to make targeting more precise. Castner said the bombs are produced by the Israeli defence giant Rafael, but a recent State Department release first obtained by The New York Times showed some of the technology had been produced in the United States.

The Israeli military is also dropping unguided "dumb" bombs. Several experts pointed to two photos posted to social media by the Israeli Air Force at the start of the war showing fighter jets stocked with unguided bombs.

Is the strategy working?

Israel says it has two immediate goals: Destroy Hamas and rescue the 129 captives still held by militants.

Eleven weeks into the war, Israel claims it has destroyed many Hamas sites and hundreds of tunnel shafts and has killed 7,000 Hamas fighters out of an estimated 30,000-40,000. Hamas says Israel has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children. Israeli leaders say intense military pressure is the only way to free more captives.

But some families of captives worry that the bombing endangers their loved ones.

Captives released during a weeklong ceasefire last month recounted that their captors moved them from place to place to avoid Israeli bombardment. Hamas says that several captives died from Israeli bombs. On Thursday it released video of three Israeli captives — Eliya Tolidano, Nek Birz, and Ron Sherman — who were killed by Israeli military, saying "despite our efforts to preserve their lives, Netanyahu insists on killing them."

Invading Israeli military has also killed Israeli captives who fled from Hamas captivity.

Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer Talalqa were killed last week, after the three men, all in their 20s, approached an Israeli army unit shirtless and with their hands up to show they were not carrying weapons or explosives. One of them was waving a white flag. Yet they were seen as "threat" by Israeli troops and shot dead.