PROLOGUE
A United Nations-led aid consortium estimates that more than 234,000 homes have been damaged across Gaza and 46,000 destroyed, amounting to about 60 percent of the housing stock in the territory, which is home to some 2.3 million Palestinians.
1] The Sats
Detailed satellite images were once the province of secretive government agencies. Nowadays, however, high-fidelity (high-resolution) satellite photos are news appetite commonality - and information diets - for millions of people, bringing before-and-after views of everything from natural disasters to global genocidal violence .
Therefore, it is not surprising that many governments and defense agencies are private satellite companies' biggest customers. Indeed, one can always get a picture of any place. The process is just a matter of finding the remote-sensing image provider who has the capacity to take that picture one wants.
To be noted that the availability of high-resolution satellite imagery over Gaza is practically the same as it was even before the war, according to Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Montere.
Only that in the present conflict crisis, the Israeli government has applied satellite imagery technologies not only as a military tool but as a socio-economic "urban redevelopment" technique landscaping Palestinian ghettos through targeted bombardment of sanctuaries and tunnel network.
2] The Imaging
There is Planet Lab a prominent U.S. company which distributes Gaza images. It seems that Planet has an unusual arrangement where if one tasked a satellite, typically that image sluices into a catalogue whereby everybody gets to see the captured image. However, in Planet case, in the distribution of high-resolution images of Gaza, the process goes through a folder so that media could access it, but the combatants could not.
A company spokesperson stated, "To reduce the potential for misuse and abuse, we decided to apply additional review for SkySat imagery over the conflict region."
This does not prevent Planet from continuing to make images of Gaza available to media and humanitarian organizations and other clients, noting that it has shared detailed images that were then featured in news stories detailing the war's impact.
The fine resolution of war zones is typically depict a square on the ground measuring 40 centimeters by 40 centimeters. For reference, that's width of one pixel in a satellite image of Israel can now depict a square on the ground measuring 40 centimeters by 40 centimeters.
3] The Companies
Planet has two sectors — "defense and intelligence" and "civil government" — where the company's two most lucrative areas for million-dollar-plus sales of annual contracts.
The other major entity Maxar, the federal government is the company's biggest client.
During a conflict situation, fewer Maxar images are publicly available because the U.S. government simply buys them up as this is the company's preferred business model.
The Israel Defense Forces also might attempt to buy up images of their own positions, so no one else would have access to them.
In comparison,
Planet whose business ethos is to image the entire globe basically every day whereas Maxar, which has extremely powerful satellites, but they do not sensor image as often.
If an interested party wants to obtain an image that does not comply with limits set by U.S. laws or companies, other options are out there, including from Chinese and Iranian outlets or competitors such as the EU-based Airbus in the provision of Israeli images.
4] The Controller
Under the Kyl-Bingaman Amendment, or KBA, the office of Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs, which is part of NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) can issue a U.S. license for collecting or distributing satellite images of Israel "only if such imagery is no more detailed or precise than satellite imagery of Israel that is available from commercial sources" — meaning outlets beyond the U.S.
One would like to ask How long has the U.S. restricted satellite imagery of Israel? It has become an unique situation where for years, federal law has limited the quality of commercial satellite imagery U.S. companies can sell — if the images depict Israel and Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories such as Gaza.
It may not be unusual for countries to attempt to restrict satellite imagery of sensitive locations on their own soil. However, in this case, the U.S. law seeks to protect an entire — and separate — country.
"This restriction doesn't even apply to the U.S. homeland and territories”, said satellite imagery analyst Matt Korda of the Federation of American Scientists.
The quasi-alliance US has with Israel is well entrenched, (see firesstorms).
5] The Damages
“Wiping Gaza Off the Map” - the Israel’s Secret Intelligence Memorandum - “Option C” : There are photographic evidence confirming criminal Netanyahu’s undertaking, (globalresearch).
Gaza before Oct 7th.
It’s genocide:
Gaza after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood or Deluge; Arabic: عملية طوفان الأقصى, and the Israel Defense Force immediate response: bombardment of shelters.
The underlying modalities are confirmed in an official “secret” memorandum of Israel’s Ministry of Intelligence.
It seems that Washington is fully supportive of this military-intelligence operation.
Both US and British Special Operation Forces are in fact collaborating with the I.D.F. (READ HERE).
EPILOGUE
The Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas is on the way to victory despite intensive aerial bombardment by IDF in collusion with monopoly-capital collaborating with the assistance of an imperialistic power by modern technology in applying satellite imagery.
Israel’s victory in Gaza is far from a success because in many a time did the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Tel Aviv again to hold meetings with PM Netanyahu and the war cabin to mitigate existential threats - at a time when a growing number of Israeli leaders, including ex-security chiefs, current opposition leader Yair Lapid and now two former prime ministers Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak are all calling for Netanyahu removal and formation of a new government to end this no-win war as Israel approaches the War's Moment of Truth, (Haaretz 30/11/2023).
We will fight until the last Israeli soldier leaves Gaza; and our ultimate aim is a political settlement, which includes ending the siege on the Strip, respecting holy sites in Jerusalem, and a political settlement that ends illegal Israeli colonization of the West Bank, and a fully independent Palestine state.
Publications posted TWTW:
1] Exploring the Palestinian cause
3] Chile’s Dirección de Inteligencia
4] The US global geopolitical hegemony straining under multilateralism
5] MOMENTUM #137 and Friday Files 1st Dec 2023.
Kindly circulate journal, and distribute articles to your friends and diaspora communities.
Thanks a heap.