GAZA STRIP, Palestine – The full breadth of devastation across the besieged Gaza Strip has been laid bare by aerial footage published by The Washington Post, capturing a haunting portrait of a region reduced to ash and rubble under relentless Israeli bombardment, followed by genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
The footage, shot from a Royal Jordanian Air Force C-130 aircraft during a humanitarian aid drop, exposes a shattered landscape where makeshift tents now stretch across bombed-out schoolyards, parking lots, and rubble-filled streets. Gaza’s remaining population, displaced and starving, has no choice but to survive in these temporary shelters, fabricated from tarps, twisted metal, and salvaged debris, erected wherever a flat surface can still be found.
The images, taken through the plane’s portholes on Wednesday, were captured before a sudden blackout on international media documentation. By Friday, the Washington Post crew was informed that filming over Gaza was no longer allowed, raising concerns about growing attempts to restrict global awareness of the humanitarian catastrophe.
Among the most striking images are close-ups of obliterated school complexes, residential blocks reduced to skeletons, and the ruins of the Jabalya refugee camp, which had once sheltered thousands. The aerial perspective underscores what observers on the ground have long attested: there is no safe zone in Gaza.
A Royal Jordanian pilot, speaking anonymously to the Washington Post, called the view “shocking.” His account was blunt: “Everyone who sees it will be horrified. We hope this war will end. We need to send them more and more food, because they are starving.”
The ongoing Genocide in Gaza, which began after Israel’s military launched its so-called “Operation Iron Swords” on 7 October 2023, has now killed more than 186,000 Palestinians, according to a study published in The Lancet. The figure, which includes direct and indirect deaths resulting from injury, disease, starvation, and lack of healthcare, paints a portrait of near-total societal collapse.
Israel claims its actions were in response to the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that left around 1,200 Israelis dead, but human rights groups and UN experts have accused the Israeli military of war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and collective punishment. The death toll on the Israeli side remains at approximately 1,400.
What followed the initial Hamas incursion was not a counteroffensive; it was a systematic erasure. Israel enforced a total blockade on Gaza, cutting off water, food, electricity, fuel, and medicine. Hospitals were bombed, refugee camps were shelled, and vital civilian infrastructure was obliterated. The destruction continues unabated, with no binding ceasefire in sight.
International agencies have largely failed to deliver consistent aid. Even the United Nations has come under scrutiny for sidestepping long-established local networks and bypassing Palestinian-led humanitarian groups. Critics call it complicity by omission, a betrayal of Gaza’s most vulnerable.
The fallout is no longer regional. The conflict has expanded into Lebanon and Yemen, while missile exchanges between Israel and Iran have edged dangerously close to regional war.
The Washington Post’s rare, uncensored glimpse of Gaza’s airspace provides grim validation to reports long dismissed or buried. It is no longer a matter of disputed narratives, but of undeniable evidence. What remains of Gaza is not a war zone, but a graveyard.
In the American footage, the Jordanian aircrew did not initially face restrictions. However, the sudden clampdown on photography suggests an effort to conceal the true scale of destruction from international view.
