Google Earth Is Adding Updated Satellite Imagery of Gaza

Before-and-after aerial photos reveal the horrific aftermath of widespread bombing

The same site in Beit Lahia, North Gaza, in August 2023 and November 2023. Screenshots captured by the author using Google Earth Pro.

Today’s warfare is incredibly visible throughout the world.

Citizens snap photos of violence and destruction and share them online. Soldiers film themselves stepping into battle, firing at combatants, and interrogating captives. Uploaded online almost instantly and widely disseminated, these photos and videos contribute significantly to global public awareness of conflicts.

Complementing these first-person angles, we have aerial photography and satellite imagery.

There’s something brutally honest about the overhead views provided by satellites and drones. They don’t tell whole stories, but they present unmistakable truths.

There were buildings here, and now there is rubble.

This was a neighborhood, and now it is nothing.

The same site in Beit Hanoun, Northeast Gaza, in August 2023 and November 2023. Screenshots captured by the author using Google Earth Pro.

The world’s largest collection of publicly accessible geographic imagery belongs to Google and is shared via Google Maps and Google Earth. The of an image on Google…