Less than a year before a Hamas attack out of Gaza sparked a war, one of the oldest and largest sports complexes in the Palestinian territories got a much-needed overhaul: brand-new basketball, volleyball and tennis courts, a soccer field, a running track and, for the first time, accessible bathrooms. It was a $519,000 upgrade, funded by United States taxpayers.
Now, the roof of the Gaza Sports Club appears to be shredded to ribbons, its AstroTurf field crushed under the weight of massive tanks that can be seen in satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press.
Since early October, at least five U.S.-funded community and youth projects in Gaza appear to have been damaged or destroyed, likely by the U.S.-backed Israeli military. However, both in the past and now, Israeli strikes in Gaza appear to have largely spared major infrastructure projects funded by the U.S. government, which has shared their GPS coordinates and other details with the Israeli military for years.
Israel’s offensive is in response to an Oct. 7 Hamas assault in Israel that killed about 1,200 people and took hundreds hostage. Meanwhile, health officials in Hamas-run Gaza say more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, and some 1.9 million have fled their homes.
The United Nations has identified more than 37,000 structures destroyed or damaged in the war so far.
The U.S. has spent more than $7 billion in development and humanitarian aid in the West Bank and Gaza since establishing a U.S. Agency for International Development mission decades ago, including $270 million since President Joe Biden ended a Trump-era halt on new funding. For decades, the U.S. also has sent more than $3 billion a year to support Israel’s military, with a pledge from the Biden administration for more than $14 billion in 2023.
“It causes a bit of cognitive dissonance, I would say,” said Howard Sumka, who served as the USAID mission director for Gaza and the West Bank between 2006 and 2010. “It’s important for us to keep providing humanitarian assistance and development assistance, and when the military comes and wipes it out, we start all over again. But it is a little bit Sisyphean.”
The news agencies reviewed U.S. contracts and grants in Gaza and identified more than 30 construction projects built or improved by American taxpayers in the enclave. A review of recent satellite images and analysis from Maxar Technologies finds that, while more than a dozen major U.S.-backed projects appear to be intact, there has been damage to at least five. The news agencies independently verified Maxar’s assessment by examining its satellite images, as well as images from separate satellites captured by Planet Labs in recent weeks.
The Israeli military would not comment on damage to U.S.-supported structures or provide any information about its targets.
The exact cause of the damage seen in images cannot be determined by photos alone. In some cases, news reports and government sources verified Israeli military attacks near U.S.-backed projects in Gaza.
Israel blames Hamas for the damage, saying the group uses Gaza’s civilian infrastructure as cover to stage attacks, hide its fighters and weapons and build tunnels underground. It also says that hundreds of misfired Hamas rockets aimed at Israel have instead landed inside Gaza.
The news agencies was unable to reach Palestinian officials in Gaza due to repeated communications disruptions.
The CEO and president of Anera, a U.S. contractor that has built dozens of infrastructure projects in Gaza, including the Sports Club, called its destruction “a terrible tragedy.”
“This war is exacting a terrible toll – on human lives and the infrastructure of daily life – that will be felt for decades to come,” Sean Carroll said.
In 2011, USAID contributed $138,000 to help construct the Arab Orthodox Cultural Center, a two-story building complete with a theater, ballroom and lecture hall. Satellite images from October appear to show major damage to the center.
Two different centers serving children with disabilities appear to have been damaged or destroyed in recent days, according to Maxar images from Dec. 20. The Right to Live Society for children with autism and Down syndrome and the Abilities Enhancement Center for Jabalia Rehabilitation Society supporting disabled children were built with $28,000 and $177,000 in U.S. funding respectively.
Meanwhile, the Gaza YMCA library, renovated with $89,000 in U.S. funds, escaped unscathed, while at least one city block next to it was entirely leveled.
The Rosary Sisters School, which serves both Muslim and Christian children, sustained some damage in a recent airstrike. In 2022, $495,000 in U.S. taxpayer funds built new classrooms with smart boards, air conditioning, an elevator and a brand new floor to make room for a high school.
Maxar satellite images show debris and damage strewn across the school’s courtyard, which served as a basketball court and assembly area for hundreds of students.
But the school buildings themselves were still standing as of Nov. 22, as are the majority of significant U.S.-funded projects in Gaza, critical infrastructure in the impoverished region where clean drinking water was scarce even before the current war — including a desalination plant near Deir Al Balah in Gaza that the U.S. spent $16 million expanding, along with two water reservoirs and pumping facilities at Al Bureij and Al Maghazi, which cost around $7 million combined.
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