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- GC42C-04: Active InSAR monitoring of building damage in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas War
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Board 0916‚ 342NOLA CC
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Corey Scher, Oregon State University (First Author, Presenting Author)
Jamon Van Den Hoek, Oregon State University
The Israel-Hamas War, which began on October 7, 2023, led to one of the most intense conventional bombing campaigns in modern history. This caused widespread destruction across Gaza, but the extent and timing of damage has been difficult to assess regularly over time. Restricted physical access to Gaza and limits on commercial high-resolution satellite imagery constrained analysis to publicly-available satellite data to monitor impacts on the built environment. In this study, we use open radar data from the Sentinel-1 satellite constellation to track building damage across Gaza on a weekly basis over the first year of the war. To our knowledge, this is the first time satellite radar has been operationalized for continuous damage monitoring throughout an ongoing conflict. Our method detects over 92% of the damage recorded in sporadic United Nations assessments, with very few false alarms, while providing regularly updated estimates of damage at a previously unrealized temporal fidelity, capturing shifting hotspots of new damage that align with the progression of the conflict over time. By the end of the year, nearly 200,000 buildings—around three out of every five—were likely damaged or destroyed. This low-cost, fast, and scalable method supports journalism and humanitarian response in inaccessible conflict zones.
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