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.

1/ In 2020, Parvin, a young woman from Iran, crossed the Greek-Turkish border 7 times; 6 times across the Evros/Meriç river and once over the Aegean Sea. She was arrested and pushed back 6 times. We worked w/ @ECCHRBerlin, @rights360 and Parvin to reconstruct her journey. 2/ Parvin recorded her first 3 crossings through photos, videos, audio messages & live location sharing. Unprecedentedly, she was able to record videos from inside Greek border guard stations that revealed the cell interiors & conditions of detention, all previously undocumented.

FA returns to @hkw_berlin today to launch our new Berlin-based sister agency, FORENSIS, and the Investigative Commons, a new community of practice founded on the work of FA and our partners including @ECCHRBerlin, Praxis Films, @bellingcat, @amnesty, @mnemonicorg, among others Investigative Commons serves as both the title of a landmark exhibition at @hkw_berlin and the name of a pioneering new model for collaborative counter-investigations operating across multiple forums: courts, citizens’ tribunals, cultural institutions and media platforms

Forensic Architecture y el grupo chileno @nomaslacris colaboraron para analizar la represión policial y el uso gas lacrimógeno el 20 de diciembre de 2019, uno de los días más intensos de la represión. Una combinación de OSI y simulación dinámica de fluídos es la primera en medir la concentración de partículas de gas en aire y suelo, estableciendo un punto de referencia.

Together with the Chilean @nomaslacris we analysed police use of teargas on the 20th of Dec 2019, to repress one of the most intense days of the Chilean protests. Using a combination of OSI and fluid dynamics simulation is the first to measure airborne and ground deposited teargas concentration, establishing a benchmark.

Since the killing of George Floyd, protests against racialized violence by police have been met with further egregious police brutality.

With @bellingcat, we verified & analysed over 1000 incidents of US police violence.

View the interactive data here: blmprotests.forensic-architecture.org The data we've gathered evidences:

- 400+ attacks on civilians using chemical agents
- 300+ instances of unjustified arrest, detention, and intimidation
- 300+ physical assaults by officers
- 250+ attacks on journalists, medics, and legal observers

And we're still adding more.

1/ Our latest investigation with @rights360 confirms reports that migrants crossing the Evros/Meriç river from Turkey to Greece are beaten, illegally detained, and forcefully expelled by Greek forces, a practice known as “pushbacks”. bit.ly/31gEcXo 2/ We used 3D models to undertake ‘situated testimony’ that helped four victims of pushbacks identify the locations where they were detained and pushed back, and reconstruct their experiences. forensic-architecture.org/investigation/…