NEW: ‘A Cartography of Genocide’. Since October 2023, we have collected and analysed data related to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Our findings indicate that Israel has systematically targeted all aspects of civilian life. tinyurl.com/bdcrnzka We present our findings in a report and an interactive platform, revealing how Israel’s military campaign has fundamentally reshaped Gaza. Much of this reshaping appears to embody in practice the statements of genocidal intent made by Israeli state and army officials and media. We found:

A year ago today, doctors stood among the bodies of victims of the Al-Ahli blast, warning that if Israeli impunity continued, more attacks on Gaza’s hospitals would follow. Among them was surgeon Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a firsthand witness to the blast, whose testimony was overlooked. We’ve recorded it here: forensic-architecture.org/investigation/… Dr Abu-Sittah's expert testimony on the nature of the injuries he treated that night offers clues about the type of weapon used in the attack. His analysis of the wounds suggested that a ‘fragmentation bomb’ rather than a simple explosive was likely the cause of the blast.

NEW INVESTIGATION: Between 24 and 28 August 2023, a fire caused by a leaking petrochemical tank at the Marathon Petroleum refinery in Garyville, Louisiana waxed, waned, and reignited, producing a thick plume of toxic smoke that spread for miles over neighbouring communities. Authorities claimed that the incident was contained to the site. Suspecting a cover-up, residents asked us to investigate: forensic-architecture.org/investigation/… Marathon’s facility in Garyville is one of the largest refineries in the western hemisphere. Residents of ‘fenceline’ communities, which directly border this and other facilities across Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’, are forced to breathe some of the most toxic air in the US. FA previously worked with @risestjames and @project_descend to investigate the construction of industrial facilities atop unmarked Black cemeteries: forensic-architecture.org/investigation/…

Our joint investigation w/ @earshot_ngo and @AJFaultLines into the killing of 6-year-old Hind Rajab, her 4 cousins, her aunt and uncle, and 2 paramedics on 29 Jan 2024 challenges the Israeli Army’s claim that troops weren't in the area that day.
forensic-architecture.org/investigation/… Hind and 6 family members, fleeing invading Israeli forces, left in the early hours of 29 Jan from a home in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City, driving north.

Israel claims that the poorly worded 24 May ICJ ruling gives it license to continue attacking Palestinians in Gaza, if it warns civilians to evacuate combat zones and move to safe 'humanitarian zones'. But we have geolocated three strikes within areas Israel suggested were safe. On 6 May, Israel told civilians in Rafah to evacuate to an 'expanded humanitarian area'. But Israel had contracted the safe area in the south, where it had previously told civilians to move. On 26 May, Israel killed 45 people sheltering in tents there.

https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1787347748737421635

Responding to the 17 May @CIJ_ICJ hearing, we assessed Israel’s actions re: provision of aid, shelter & safe passage to civilians. Findings suggest Israel is not only neglecting its humanitarian duties, but actively destroying conditions of life in Gaza. bit.ly/inhumane-zones In anticipation of today’s order from the @CIJ_ICJ, we are sharing our analysis on Israeli military actions since 6 May 2024—when the long-threatened invasion of Rafah began—in view of patterns of Israeli military conduct since 7 Oct 2023. Summary of findings follow:

NEW INVESTIGATION: Since Oct '23, the Israeli military has systematically targeted agricultural land and infrastructure in Gaza. To mark Land Day in Palestine, we present our analysis of this widespread destruction as an act of ecocide that supports Israel’s genocidal campaign. We used remote sensing to measure the scale of agricultural destruction by comparing the region’s ‘vegetation index’ before and after the ground invasion. Our analysis reveals that as of Mar 2024, ~40% of the land in Gaza previously used for food production has been destroyed.

NEW INVESTIGATION: Since 7 Oct 23, the Israeli army has weaponised humanitarian measures such as ‘evacuation orders’, ‘safe routes’ & ‘safe zones’ to support their military operations & facilitate the mass displacement of Palestinians.

View the platform: gaza.forensic-architecture.org/displacement
Our analysis reveals how Israel's systematic displacement of Palestinians, towards areas already rendered unliveable by attacks on critical civilian infrastructure, has occurred in three phases.

Read our full text report here: content.forensic-architecture.org/wp-content/upl…

NEW REPORT: We analysed the visual material presented by Israel at the @CIJ_ICJ hearing on 12 Jan '24. We found 8 instances of the Israeli legal team misrepresenting materials presented through incorrect annotations and misleading descriptions. Full report forensic-architecture.org/investigation/… A few examples to follow: 1) Israel’s legal team referenced an annotated drone image to claim Al-Quds hospital was used for military purposes and thus a justified target. We found the hospital boundary annotation was incorrect and no evidence of armed operations inside al-Quds.

Our latest findings on the al-Ahli hospital blast: using 3D trajectory analysis, we dispute the Israeli military’s claim that the hospital was struck by a misfiring Palestinian rocket from a salvo of 17, with most of the damage caused by unspent rocket propellant. Our analysis shows that all 17 rockets travelled 1.8-2km at 500-630m/s and stopped flaring at a 1km altitude, ~4km west of al-Ahli. According to an aerospace expert, these figures indicate that all rockets would have finished burning their propellant while still in mid-flight.

Our aggregation of news reports since 7 Oct suggests that hospitals in Gaza are subjected to a repeated pattern of intimidation, direct targeting, siege, and occupation by the Israeli military: …a-hospitals.forensic-architecture.org
Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, has been subjected to this systematic process of destruction and depopulation. We brought together open-source evidence to tell its horrifying story day by day: shifa.forensic-architecture.org

One of Gaza’s most important archaeological sites—threatened previously by Israeli bombings/siege—has been mostly destroyed in the Israeli invasion. The site, near al-Shati refugee camp, consists of several excavations which suggest extensive remains throughout the area: The present destruction of the site by the IOF has unfolded in three stages: (1) airstrikes, (2) surface-level demolition, and now (3) the installation of water pumps ostensibly to flood underground tunnels.

With @alhaq_org, we continue to monitor cases of reported attacks by Israel on medical facilities in Gaza. This task is made harder by Israeli disinformation; in the thread below, we demonstrate that Israeli media statements following the al-Ahli hospital blast were misleading. Our 3D reconstruction and trajectory analysis confirmed reports by @nytimes and @washingtonpost: the Israeli military and media maintain that the 17 Oct blast at al-Ahli was caused by a misfiring PIJ/Hamas rocket based on 2 videos, neither of which in fact shows what they claim.

Preliminary analysis by FA, @alhaq_org & @earshot_ngo into the #AlAhli hospital blast in Gaza casts significant doubt on IOF claims that the source of the deadly explosion was a Palestinian-fired rocket travelling west to east. 3D analysis shows patterns of radial fragmentation on the southwest side of the impact crater, as well as a shallow channel leading into the crater from the northeast. Such patterns indicate a likely projectile trajectory with northeast origins.

Nuestro nuevo estudio del caso del asesinato de Dilan Cruz desafía las conclusiones de la Fiscalía sobre su asesinato. Puedes verlo aquí: forensic-architecture.org/investigation/… Usando la evidencia de la propia Fiscalía y nuestros métodos de análisis, en nuestro estudio afirmamos que Dilan fue seguido por Manuel Cubillos, el agente del ESMAD, durante varios segundos antes de ser disparado.

Today we reveal new evidence about the massacres carried out by Israeli forces in the Palestinian village of Tantura after its occupation in May 1948. Our investigation establishes two very likely sites of mass graves—one newly identified. Bringing together archival photos, aerial images, maps, witness testimonies, ‘memory sketches’, and a new situated testimony conducted by FA with Adnan Yahya, a survivor from Tantura, we reconstructed the village in 3D and identified a further two sites of possible mass graves.

This week at #UNAHanau @mimueller/@cdu_hessen said our work on the police response to the 19-Feb-20 racist attack was ‘fully without worth’, & called us ‘charlatans’. Maybe he wasn’t paying attention; here’s a few things the UNA knows because of our work:

forensic-architecture.org/investigation/… It was @ForensicArchi + @counterinv who proved that the video camera on the police helicopter which was flying over Hanau that night was set to the wrong time. Maybe @mimueller doesn’t think it’s important that #UNAHanau knows precisely what time the events of the night happened.

NEW Investigation by FA and @alhaq_org's FAI Unit into the 11 May extrajudicial killing of Shireen Abu Akleh uses previously unseen footage provided by @AJArabic and advanced spatial and audio analysis to reveal conclusive evidence. Full investigation: bit.ly/3SiDZLh 1/9 #1. Shireen and her colleagues were clearly identifiable as press. Our field of vision analysis simulating the view from the IOF marksman's rifle scope both optically and digitally shows the legibility of the journalists' 'PRESS' vests as they were targeted. 2/9

Today we publish our latest, months-long investigation with @counterinv, an interactive cartographic platform that archives, verifies and maps over 1000 ‘drift-backs’ in the Aegean Sea: aegean.forensic-architecture.org ‘Drift-backs’ are a new mode of expulsion at the edge of the EU that weaponises the geography of the Aegean to deny asylum seekers access to safety. Intercepted in GR waters and islands by @HCoastGuard, they are left adrift on life rafts, back to Turkey.

vimeo.com/730006259

FA is pleased to announce its first collaborative investigation with @CST_echo. Just over 3 months since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, we present a detailed analysis of one of the first symbolically significant events of the war, the Russian missile strike on the Kyiv TV tower. Russia's strike on the Kyiv TV tower was not particularly effective militarily—but the significance of targeting the capital city’s main television and radio tower cannot be underestimated in a war as much about control over narrative as over land and the people inhabiting it.

Our latest investigation + our first ‘open source archaeology’, documents the ancient city of Anthedon near Al-Shati camp in Gaza—Palestinian heritage under threat from coastal erosion, repeated bombings & the humanitarian disaster of Israeli occupation. forensic-architecture.org/investigation/… Excavations at the site throughout the 90s unearthed Iron Age walls, Achaemenid period houses, Roman villas & fountain, a key Greco-Roman port city, & a Byzantine cemetery. The remnants were reburied by archaeologists for their protection as the occupation intensified in the 00s.