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Remote sensing data processed and shared with India Today by American geospatial scholars showed a large scale of damage across Lebanon in the 13-month-long conflict with Israeli forces.
The ceasefire started with an agreement to stop hostilities for 60 days, which appeared to broke down 24 hours later as Israeli tanks attacked six areas accusing the other side of violating terms.
New Delhi,UPDATED: Dec 6, 2024 20:52 IST
The months-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah left a trail of intense damage and destruction in Lebanon before it came to a halt with a ceasefire last month, a comprehensive analysis of satellite data shows.
More than 17,130 buildings were either fully or partially destroyed between September 2023 and November 2024.
The assessment is based on remote sensing data processed and shared with India Today by Corey Scher, a PhD candidate at City University of New York (CUNY), and Jamon Van Den Hoek, an assistant professor at Oregon State University.
Nearly four thousand people in Lebanon have been killed and almost 16,000 injured in Israeli attacks, as per Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Over 13 lakh people have been displaced, including 9 lakh internally displaced persons.
Damage assessment
In the last eight months of the conflict leading to the ceasefire, the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Kila experienced the highest proportion of destruction, with over 74% of its buildings damaged in Israeli strikes in the past five months. Meanwhile, Meiss Ej-Jabal in south Lebanon recorded the largest number of affected structures, with 1,317 buildings, or 41%, destroyed.
Khiam, just 5 kilometers from the Blue Line separating Lebanon and Israel, also experienced extensive damage. Over the past eight months, approximately 44% of its buildings have been either partially or fully destroyed. On November 23 alone, at least 372 buildings in the municipality area were damaged.
Corey and Jamon used the “coherent change detection approach” to map urban damage during the armed conflict. The damage map has been created using data from the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite, analysed over multiple dates.
The dataset compares satellite images of Lebanon taken from April to November this year, comparing images acquired during the conflict to hundreds of images acquired before the conflict. Damage to buildings and infrastructure is classified using information on changes in the radar signal. These signals are combined with Microsoft's building footprint dataset to pinpoint which buildings were damaged and when.
Displacement
At least 13 lakh people in Lebanon have been displaced during the conflict. More than 562,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria since the escalation of hostilities — 63 percent of the displaced are Syrians and 27 percent are Lebanese or other nationals, as per data by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
As of November 24, Lebanon reported 899,725 internally displaced persons (IDPs), primarily from the southern districts: 21% from Tyre, 17% from El Nabatieh, and 12% from Bent Jbeil. Approximately 18% of the displaced have relocated to the neighbouring Chouf district, and 15% to Beirut, where bombings were less intense.
Cost of war
The cost of physical damage and economic losses due to the conflict in Lebanon is estimated at Rs 850 crore, according to a World Bank report that provides an initial assessment of the impact of the conflict on the economy and key sectors.
The Lebanon Interim Damage and Loss Assessment (DaLA) finds that damage to physical structures alone amounts to Rs 28,000 crore and economic losses of Rs 43,000 crore.
In terms of economic growth, the conflict is estimated to have cut Lebanon’s real GDP growth by at least 6.6 percent in 2024. This compounds five years of sustained sharp contraction of real GDP that has exceeded 34 percent.
Published On:
Dec 6, 2024
