The Guardian joins a Jordanian military airdrop for a rare chance to observe a landscape devastated by Israel’s offensive

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/34219709

Tue 5 Aug 2025 13.49 EDT

Seen from the air, Gaza looks like the ruins of an ancient civilisation, brought to light after centuries of darkness. A patchwork of concrete shapes and shattered walls, neighbourhoods scattered with craters, rubble and roads that lead nowhere. The remnants of cities wiped out.

But here, there has been no natural disaster and no slow passage of time.

Gaza was a bustling, living place until less than two years ago, for all the challenges its residents endured even then. Its markets were crowded, its streets were full of children. That Gaza is gone – not buried under volcanic ash, not erased by history, but razed by an Israeli military campaign that has left behind a place that looks like the aftermath of an apocalypse.

  • @[email protected]English
    5•6 days ago

    It’s the world’s largest crime scene. They’re going to bulldoze it to assuage their guilt. But we won’t forget. They can’t kill everyone who knows about their crime.

  • @[email protected]English
    1•6 days ago

    North Gaza near the border is pretty much destroyed but the rest doesnt look so bad. With all the doom posting going on here you would have thought Gaza had been turned into rubble.

    • @[email protected]English
      7•6 days ago

      doesnt look so bad

      Everyone knows having less than 30% of the open air prison you call home be tuned into an unlivable scorched hell is perfectly normal. Decadent luxury even. Most of the population isn’t even getting shot within seconds of going outside! Having fun in the sun in Khan Yunis and Rafah, who needs the north? We truly did it R*ddit!

      With all the doom posting going on here you would have thought Gaza had been turned into rubble.

      You’ve really pulled the scales from my eyes, you have given me perspective I’ve desperately lacked. I now understand that I should shut up about it until the entire population of Gaza is fertilizing the ashes of their home, and only then will feeling anything other than ironic detachment be valid, even as part of my own country is currently occupied by the IDF with increasingly unrealistic demands being asked for them to withdraw.

      Thanks bro! Really showing us all how much better Lemmy users are than R*dditors. I’ve got IDF MK drones buzzing outside reminding me of who has the arbitrary power of life and death over me, but it’s not the drones, it’s comments like yours that scare me. Jesus fucking Christ.