Israel has destroyed around 1,250 buildings in Gaza City since the operation began in mid-August, but it has not killed even 200 Hamas terrorists there yet.
In what has become a full-fledged ground troops invasion on September 16, out of the 1,250 buildings that were demolished, 350 at a minimum were classified as being entirely military-based, while at least another 650 buildings were categorized as being secondary militant-use facilities, such as having surveillance cameras.
Some building definitions were still unclear, but IDF sources have told The Jerusalem Post that as long as there is any military use of a structure, even if it involves only one surveillance camera, an entire multistory building might be demolished.
Whether a law-abiding military has ever applied such a broad approach to targeting hostiles remains unclear. That said, the narrow principle that the army uses, which renders a civilian structure targetable, is a bedrock principle of the laws of war.
In a context where criticism of Israel by the EU, America’s Democratic Party, and much of the West has been reaching new levels, it remains to be seen if the latest volume of destruction in Gaza City will lead to backlash in the form of additional economic and diplomatic actions against the Jewish state.
What is noteworthy is that the criticism might already be so stark that such a reaction will not have a long-lasting impact.
Casualties of heavy bombardment
There are also reports that a few hundred Palestinian civilians have been killed. Although the IDF has disputed these reports, it has not provided counter-numbers so far.
These numbers do pose a different kind of challenge for Israel in terms of legitimacy than earlier in the war, when the IDF might have been killing hundreds or even thousands of people in a week, meaning more of those killed could arguably have been Hamas terrorists.
Walla first reported the statistics, though the IDF has been regularly updating the media on well over 2,000 attacks in Gaza in recent weeks, including many dozens of examples of destroying specific large buildings.
In the domestic Israeli context, this data serves as a message to reservists and their families that the air force is clearing the field with heavy bombardments first, before ground troops will be required to take the risk of entering new areas.
Globally, the data could significantly increase the cost of rebuilding the enclave and raise questions about how much of the bill moderate Arab allies in the region will be willing to foot themselves, versus their turning to Israel to pay portions of the cost.