General Discussion

Aerial footage filmed by ITV News shows the scale of Gaza's destruction

ITV News International Editor Emma Murphy has filmed from on board a Jordanian flight dropping aid into Gaza.

https://www.itv.com/news/2025-08-04/aerial-footage-filmed-by-itv-news-shows-scale-of-gazas-destruction

The first aerials of Gaza for months document the territory's continued destruction. Filmed by ITV News International Editor Emma Murphy, on board a plane dropping aid into Gaza, the images show huge swathes of land in ruins. Journalists are prevented from entering Gaza by Israel.

Looking out the plane windows from 15,000 feet is the closest any foreign media has been to seeing the aftermath of 22 months of war, apart from trips arranged by the Israeli military. Entire areas have been levelled after months of Israeli bombardment; the land, once pebbled with spots of green, has largely turned to dust.


The Al Wafa Centre for Elderly Care is one of a few buildings in this area of Gaza to still stand. Credit: ITV News

The Al Wafa Centre for Elderly Care, located in Al-Zahraa City, stands out in a landscape primarily made of rubble. The centre said it provides care for elderly people over 60 with no one to care for them, free of charge. While the building still stands, it has not escaped aerial attacks, according to Palestinian sources.

In November 2023, there are multiple reports of Israeli shells hitting the elderly care centre and killing its director, Dr. Medhat Muheisen. Videos from the centre's social media, before the war began ,show elderly patients being fed, provided with activities and partaking in exercise. They also show the surrounding area of the hospital and what stood there before it was turned to rubble.


Buildings once surrounded the Al Wafa Centre for Elderly Care Credit: Al Wafa Centre for Elderly Care



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Rare aerial imagery shows displacement and destruction in Gaza

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/rare-aerial-imagery-shows-displacement-and-destruction-in-gaza/ar-AA1JMdbv



KING ABDULLAH II AIR BASE, Jordan — Blocks upon blocks of crumbling buildings, punctuated by vast tent encampments. Scenes of devastation where neighborhoods once stood. A chance to ride along on a Jordanian aid flight Wednesday carrying out airdrops over the Gaza Strip offered a rare opportunity for low-altitude aerial views of the scale of destruction and displacement in the territory.

Gaza has been closed to foreign reporters since Israel began its military operation in response to the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and views from above have been limited largely to satellite imagery, Israeli military photos and drone footage from Gazan journalists and media workers — at least 186 of whom have been killed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.



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Sky News and BBC journalists who reported from aid flights from Jordan this week said they were told that Israel had prohibited filming Gaza from above. The organizations did not say how the directive had been conveyed. Sky reported that it was informed Israel could delay or cancel aid flights if its journalists filmed Gaza. The IDF declined to comment on the matter.

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It was “very sad” to see the Gaza Strip from above, Maher Halaseh, 36, a Royal Jordanian Air Force navigator who also took part in last year’s airdrops, said Friday. “Everything is different. There’s no buildings, nothing. A lot of tents on the shoreline. I start to see it when all the buildings were there. Nowadays, there’s nothing. They are dying over there.” A closer look shows how hundreds of thousands of Gazans are living, in makeshift tents erected anywhere space can be found, including on the beach in Gaza’s south.



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