Palestine ← Forensic Architecture

I.120 The Massacre of Aid Workers in Tel al-Sultan

Date of Incident: 23 Mar 2025
Location: Tel al-Sultan, Gaza
Forums: Human Rights Report, Media
In Partnership With: Earshot
Summary: On 23 March 2025 in Tel al-Sultan, Gaza, Israeli forces massacred fifteen Palestinian aid workers travelling in clearly marked humanitarian vehicles, later burying their bodies and vehicles in a shallow mass grave. FA and Earshot worked with the Palestine Red Crescent Society and survivors of the massacre to reconstruct the incident with unprecedented precision.

I.118 Three Days at Al-Azhar University: 28-30 January 2024

Date: 28 Jan 2024 – 30 Jan 2024
Summary: Since October 2023, Israeli evacuation orders have repeatedly displaced Palestinians throughout Gaza, often to areas designated as 'humanitarian' or ‘safe zones’ but that in fact were no less dangerous and critically lacking in life-sustaining provisions. Through the account of a couple from Beit Hanoun, this narrative study tells a harrowing story of endurance in the midst of persistent violence.

I.109 A Cartography of Genocide: Israel's Conduct in Gaza since October 2023

Updated 08 Oct 2025

Date of Incident: 07 Oct 2023 – Ongoing
Location: Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territories
Forums: Legal Process, Web Platform
Commissioned By: Self-Initiated
Summary: Since October 2023, we have closely monitored Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and the resulting extensive civilian harm. Comprehensive cartographic analysis, published as a web platform and in-depth report, reveals patterns of violence which indicate a systematic and organised campaign to destroy life, conditions necessary for life, and life-sustaining infrastructure.

I.108 'When it Stopped Being a War': The Situated Testimony of Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah

Updated 19 Sep 2025

Date of Incident: 17 Oct 2023
Location: Al-Ahli Hospital, Gaza City
Forums: Exhibition, Media
Commissioned By: Self-Initiated
Summary: On 17 October 2023, a massive explosion at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City killed hundreds of civilians sheltering in a courtyard. Together with Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a reconstructive surgeon working in the hospital when the blast occurred, we reconstructed the strike and its consequences.

I.116 The Architecture of Genocidal Starvation

Date of Incident: 18 Mar 2025 – 01 Aug 2025
Location: Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territories
Forums: United Nations, Parliamentary Inquiry
In Partnership With: World Peace Foundation
Summary: A ceasefire is not enough. The Israeli military’s weaponisation of aid and starvation to displace and destroy Palestinian society will not stop as long as Israel controls aid distribution. We show how Israel has imposed a deadly aid system through GHF ration stations, while dismantling a proven civilian-led model, to concentrate Palestinians in Rafah and push Gazan society toward collapse.

I.113 Return to al-Ma'in

Date of Incident: 14 May 1948 – Ongoing
Location: Al-Ma'in, Palestine
Forums: Media
In Partnership With: Palestine Land Society
Summary: With Palestinian historian and Nakba survivor Salman Abu Sitta, we reconstructed his birthplace, the village of al-Ma’in, to explore the story of its occupation and demolition by Zionist forces on 14 May 1948, and the settlements constructed on its ruins. Through al-Ma'in, we can view the continuation of the Nakba of 1948 through to the genocide of 2023.

I.111 The Massacre at Tur Al-Zagh: Al-Dawayima, 29 October 1948

Date of Incident: 29 Oct 1948
Location: Al-Dawayima, Palestine
Forums: Exhibition, Media
In Partnership With: Palestine Land Society
Summary: In collaboration with Palestine Land Society and working first-hand with Palestinian survivors of the 1948 Nakba, FA has uncovered new evidence related to a major massacre carried out by Israeli forces on 29 Oct 1948 in the village of al-Dawayima.

Israel's Destruction of the Port of Gaza

Date: October 2023 – January 2024
Summary: Gaza’s historic port was repeatedly attacked and progressively destroyed by Israeli forces between October 2023 and January 2024, along with the majority of Palestinian fishing vessels docked within it. FA was commissioned to establish a timeline of visual evidence of the port’s destruction, including the destruction of two fishing vessels belonging to the Al-Hassi family.

Panoramic Stabilisation in Blender: al-Ahli Hospital

Date: None
Summary

SP.104 The Killing of Hind Rajab · Supported Project ↗

Date of Incident: 29 Jan 2024
Location: Gaza City, Gaza
Forums: Media
Commissioned By: Al Jazeera
Summary: On 29 January 2024, in Gaza City, Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl, pleaded over the phone for emergency workers to rescue her from a bullet-ridden car. Her body was found two weeks later, alongside the bodies of six of her family members. FA was asked by Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines to investigate the circumstances of their killing.

I.102 Airstrike in Tel al-Sultan: Israel attacks its own ‘humanitarian zones’

Date: 24 May 2024 – 26 May 2024
Summary: An Israeli airstrike on a tent camp filled with displaced civilians west of Rafah prompted outrage, since the attack killed at least 45 people in an area previously declared 'safe' by Israeli social media posts and leaflets. Here, we highlight how Israel's inconsistent and contradictory guidance leaves international media confused, and Palestinian civilians exposed to mortal danger.

Attacks on Aid in Gaza: Preliminary Findings

Date: 08 Oct 2023 – 25 Apr 2024
Summary: As part of an in-depth investigation into Israel’s attacks on aid in Gaza since October 2023, we are releasing a series of preliminary findings and a map of the attacks we have documented to date. Our analysis shows the systematic targeting of civilians seeking aid, aid infrastructure, aid convoys, and personnel responsible for aid distribution.

Mass Burials at al-Shifa Hospital

Date: 14 Nov 2023 – 08 Apr 2024
Summary: Human remains surfaced amongst the ruins of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza after Israeli forces withdrew on 1 April 2024. Our analysis of visual evidence of the destruction of al-Shifa reveals that the bodies of those killed during the second invasion were bulldozed and that four makeshift burial grounds—including a mass grave—created after the first invasion were desecrated.

SP.3 German Arms Exports to Israel · Supported Project ↗

Date of Incident: 07.10.2023 - Ongoing
Location: Germany, Israel, Palestine
Forums: Legal Process, Human Rights Report
An FA-supported project by: Forensis
Summary: Despite widespread recognition of the growing risk of genocide in Gaza, Germany continues to offer military support to Israel through the supply of arms. Our report on past, current, and potential future arms export licences and deliveries from Germany to Israel supports an urgent application filed by Berlin-based lawyers on behalf of Palestinians in Gaza to stop all such exports.

I.101 ‘No traces of life’: Israel’s Ecocide in Gaza 2023-2024

Date of Incident: 07 Oct 2023 – Ongoing
Location: Gaza
Forums: Legal Process, Media
Commissioned By: Self-Initiated
Summary: Since October 2023, the Israeli military has systematically targeted agricultural land and infrastructure in Gaza. Marking the occasion of Land Day in Palestine, our investigation reveals that the widespread destruction of orchards and greenhouses in Gaza is a deliberate act of ecocide that supports Israel’s genocidal campaign.

I.100 Humanitarian Violence in Gaza

Date of Incident: 07 Oct 2023 – Ongoing
Location: Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territories
Forums: Legal Process, Human Rights Report, Web Platform
Commissioned By: Self-Initiated
Summary: Since 7 October 2023, the Israeli military has abused and weaponised humanitarian measures such as ‘evacuation orders’, ‘safe routes’, and ‘safe zones’ to facilitate the systematic mass displacement of the Palestinian civilian population toward the southern border of Gaza.

I.99 An Assessment of Visual Material Presented by the Israeli Legal Team at the ICJ

Date of Incident: 12 Jan 2024
Location: —
Forums: Legal Process
Commissioned By: Self-Initiated
Summary: Forensic Architecture’s analysis of the visual material presented by the Israeli legal team at the ICJ hearing on 12 January 2024 found multiple instances of misrepresentation, mislabelling, and misleading descriptions.

Israeli Disinformation: al-Ahli Hospital

Date: 17 Oct 2023
Summary: The devastating explosion at the al-Ahli hospital came to epitomise the information war surrounding Israel’s post-7 October invasion of Gaza. Working from open source evidence, we used techniques including 3D trajectory analysis to disprove fundamental claims made by Israel about the cause of the blast.

I.97 Destruction of Medical Infrastructure in Gaza

Date of Incident: 07 Oct 2023 – Ongoing
Location: Gaza, Palestine
Forums: Legal Process, United Nations, Human Rights Report, Media, Web Platform
Commissioned By: Self-Initiated
Summary: Since 7 October 2023, we have aggregated news reports of Israeli military attacks on medical infrastructure in Gaza. Our analysis suggests that hospitals in Gaza have been subjected to a pattern of intimidation, direct targeting, siege, and occupation by the Israeli military over the course of the 2023 invasion.

I.94 Executions and Mass Graves in Tantura, 23 May 1948

Date of Incident: 22 May 1948
Location: Tantura, Palestine
Forums: Legal Process, Media
Commissioned By: Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights
Summary: Our investigation reveals new evidence about massacres conducted in the Palestinian village of Tantura by Israeli forces after its occupation on 22-23 May 1948 and subsequent depopulation. Launched on the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, it brings together testimonies and photographic evidence to locate several mass graves in which the victims were buried—including one previously unidentified.

Shireen Abu Akleh: The Extrajudicial Killing of a Journalist | Extended Report

Date: 11 May 2022
Summary: This comprehensive written report supports our investigation into our joint investigation with Al-Haq's FAI Unit into the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, detailing the methodologies we employed and including a step-by-step breakdown of the visual, audio and spatial analysis we undertook to come to each of our investigation’s conclusions.

I.87 Shireen Abu Akleh: The Extrajudicial Killing of a Journalist

Date of Incident: 11 May 2022
Location: Jenin, Palestine
Forums: Legal Process, United Nations, Human Rights Report
In Partnership With: Al-Haq, Al Haq’s Forensic Architecture Investigation Unit
Summary: On 11 May 2022, while reporting on a raid by Israeli occupying forces on the Jenin refugee camp, Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akhleh was fatally shot by a convoy of IOF military vehicles. With Al-Haq, we showed that she and her colleagues were explicitly targeted in an unprovoked attack by an IOF marksman despite being identifiable as press, and that she was deliberately denied medical aid.

I.86 The Raid on Al-Haq's Offices: 18 August 2022

Date of Incident: 18 Aug 2022
Location: Ramallah, Palestine
Forums: Legal Process, Media
In Partnership With: Al-Haq
Summary: On 18 August 2022, Israeli occupation forces raided the offices of Al-Haq alongside six other Palestinian human rights groups. Working with Al-Haq's new Forensic Architecture Investigation Unit, we analysed available CCTV footage to determine the circumstances of the raid and expose Israeli apartheid practices against civil society organisations.

I.83 Sheikh Jarrah: Ethnic Cleansing in Jerusalem

Date of Incident: 12 May 2021
Location: Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem
Forums: Media
Commissioned By: Self-Initiated
Summary: This interactive urban narrative explains the ways in which Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah are being forcibly displaced, and their struggle with Israeli courts and settler groups. The story traverses multiple scales starting from homes invaded by settlers, and moves to the street, neighbourhood, city and the land, showing how colonial practices and apartheid planning displace Palestinians.

I.80 The Shelling of Khudair Warehouse: Chemical Warfare by Indirect Means

Date of Incident: 15 May 2021
Location: Gaza, Palestine
Forums: Legal Process, Media
In Partnership With: Al-Haq
Summary: Marking the launch of Al-Haq’s Forensic Architecture Investigation Unit based in Ramallah, we examined the circumstances of the 15 May 2021 Israeli bombing of the Khudair Pharmaceuticals and Agricultural Tools Company in Beit Lahiya—the largest agricultural chemical warehouse in Gaza—as part of the environmental disaster imposed on Palestinians.

I.79 Living Archaeology in Gaza

Date of Incident: 7th Century BCE – Ongoing
Location: Gaza
Forums: Legal Process, United Nations, Human Rights Report, Media
Commissioned By: Self-Initiated
Summary: Decades of bombings and humanitarian disaster inflicted by the Israeli occupation have posed a constant threat not only to Palestinian lives but also to their cultural heritage. FA has conducted the first open-source excavation of this remarkable archaeological site along Gaza’s coastline, illustrating the myriad risks it faces.

I.73 Digital Violence: How the NSO Group Enables State Terror

Date of Incident: 01 Jan 2015 – Ongoing
Location: At least 45 countries worldwide
Forums: Legal Process, Exhibition, Media, Web Platform
Commissioned By: Self-Initiated
Summary: Supported by Amnesty International and the Citizen Lab, Forensic Architecture’s Digital Violence investigation is a multidimensional study of the global use of the malware Pegasus made by Israeli cyber-surveillance company NSO Group.

I.69 The Extrajudicial Execution of Ahmad Erekat

Date of Incident: 23 Jun 2020
Location: Palestine
Forums: Legal Process, Human Rights Report, Media
Commissioned By: Self-Initiated
Summary: On 23 June 2020, Ahmad Erekat, a 26-year-old Palestinian, was shot by Israeli occupation forces after his car crashed into a booth at an illegal checkpoint in the occupied West Bank in Palestine. Working in collaboration with the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq, Forensic Architecture’s Palestine Unit was asked by the Erekat family to examine the incident.

I.68 NSO Group’s Breach of Private Data with ‘Fleming’, a COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Software

Date of Incident: 01 Mar 2020 – ongoing
Location: Israel and around the world
Forums: Exhibition, Media
Commissioned By: Self-Initiated
Summary: In May 2020, an unprotected database belonging to Israeli cyber-weapons manufacturer NSO Group’s COVID-19 contact tracing software called 'Fleming' was left exposed. NSO denied there was a security breach. Forensic Architecture analysed a sample of the exposed database, which suggested that the data was based on ‘real’ personal data belonging to unsuspecting civilians.

I.53 The Beating of Faisal al-Natsheh

Date of Incident: 28 Feb 2014
Location: Occupied Hebron, Palestine
Forums: Exhibition, Media
In Partnership With: Breaking the Silence
Summary: In 2017, an Israeli soldier, now member of the NGO Breaking the Silence, confessed to have gravely beaten a Palestinian man. Following the Israeli state attempts to discount the account, we built a VR tool to collect and cross-reference testimony from the soldier and other witnesses.

I.9 Shooting in Kafr Qaddum

Date: 12 Jul 2019
Summary: Every Friday, residents of the Palestinian village of Kafr Qaddum gather to protest against the confiscation of their land by Israeli colonies. On one such Friday, nine-year-old Abd el-Rahman Shatawi was shot by an Israeli soldier, while outside his friend's house, near to the protest. Using videos shared with us by activists, we unpacked the events that led to the shooting.

I.45 Herbicidal Warfare in Gaza

Date of Incident: 01 Jan 2014 – Ongoing
Location: Khan Younes, Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territories
Forums: Exhibition, Media
Commissioned By: Self-Initiated
Summary: Since 2014, Israeli military bulldozing of agricultural and residential lands along the eastern border of occupied Gaza has been complemented by unannounced aerial spraying of crop-killing herbicides. Piecing together farmer testimonies, satellite imagery, and drift analysis, we investigated the unique destructive signature of a single spraying event in April 2017, along the border in Khan Younes.

I.44 Conquer and Divide

Date of Incident: 01 Jan 1967 – Ongoing
Location: Occupied Palestinian Territories
Forums: Web Platform
In Partnership With: B’Tselem
Summary: In 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In the five decades that followed, the state of Israel has chipped away at Palestinian space through legislative, legal, and military means, restricting the freedoms of Palestinian civilians, and denying them their rights. In partnership with B'Tselem, we told that story through an interactive, scrolling cartography.

I.43 Triple-Chaser

Date of Incident: 26 Nov 2018
Location: Tijuana-San Diego border, US/Mexico; Gaza, Palestine; and around the world
Forums: Exhibition, Media
In Partnership With: Praxis Films
Summary: When US border agents fired tear gas grenades at civilians, including children, photographs linked the grenades to the Safariland Group, which is owned by Warren B. Kanders, the vice chair of the board of trustees of the Whitney Museum of American Art. In response to our invitation to the Whitney Biennial 2019, we developed machine learning classifiers to search for Safariland munitions online.

I.40 The Killing of Rouzan al-Najjar

Date of Incident: 01 Jun 2018
Location: Khuzaa, Gaza
Forums: Media
In Partnership With: The New York Times
Summary: Amid the chaos and violence of the Great March of Return, a young Palestinian medic is struck and killed by a sniper's bullet. Together with the New York Times we used photogrammetry, video analysis, and figure modelling to locate the victim among the crowd at the moment she was shot, and traced a line of fire back to a sand berm on the Israeli side of the border fence.

I.19 Killing in Umm al-Hiran

Date of Incident: 18 Jan 2017
Location: Umm al Hiran, Negev/Naqab desert
Forums: Legal Process, Exhibition
Commissioned By: Self-Initiated
Summary: A police raid on an ‘illegalised’ Bedouin village in the Naqab/Negev desert led to the deaths of a local man and an Israeli policeman. Police quickly blamed the man for what they called a ‘terror attack’. In fact, as we exposed, Israeli police had fired unprovoked on an innocent driver, causing him to crash into them.

I.38 Lethal Warning: The killing of Luai Kahil and Amir al-Nimrah

Date of Incident: 14 Jul 2018
Location: Gaza City, Occupied Palestinian Territories
Forums: Media
Commissioned By: B’Tselem
Summary: Two children died when an Israeli 'warning strike' hit a building in Gaza City. When the Israeli army shared videos of the attack, the strike that killed the teenagers had been removed. Why did the IDF manipulate their own footage? And what does the incident mean for the 'warning strike' policy?

I.26 Destruction and Return in al-Araqib

Date of Incident: 01 Jan 2010 – Ongoing
Location: al-Araqib, Negev/Naqab desert
Forums: Legal Process, Exhibition
Commissioned By: The Village of al-Araqib
Summary: The Bedouin village of al-Araqib has been demolished over 120 times since 1954. Every time, the villagers return. Using aerial imagery and archaeological surveys, and in collaboration of local families, we provided evidence of ongoing inhabitation, against their dispossession by the Israeli state

I.15 The Bombing of Rafah

Date of Incident: 08 Jul 2014 – 26 Aug 2014
Location: Rafah, Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territories
Forums: Exhibition, Human Rights Report, Media
Commissioned By: Amnesty International
Summary: When an Israeli soldier was captured and taken into the tunnels below Rafah, the full force of Israel’s military was unleashed. Using smartphone footage and satellite imagery, we mapped the destruction as over two thousand munitions were fired into the city in a single day.

I.13 The Gaza Platform: Israel's 2014 offensive

Date of Incident: 08 Jul 2014 – 26 Aug 2014
Location: Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territories
Forums: Web Platform
Commissioned By: Amnesty International
Summary: Over 2000 people died in under 2 months during the Israeli assault on Gaza. Working with local and international NGOs, we built a platform to map almost 3000 individual events, creating a public repository of testimony and data about the offensive—and a template for documenting future conflicts.

I.1 Stopping the Wall in Battir

Date of Incident: 01 Jan 2012 – 01 Jan 2015
Location: Battir, Occupied Palestinian Territories
Forums: Legal Process
Commissioned By: Michael Sfard Law Office
Summary: Israel’s separation wall in the West Bank threatened to destroy historic Palestinian farmland. We supported human rights lawyers to build a pioneering—and successful—legal argument on environmental and heritage grounds.

I.12 The Killing of Nadeem Nawara and Mohammed Abu Daher

Date of Incident: 15 May 2014
Location: Beitunia, West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territories
Forums: Exhibition, Media
Commissioned By: DCI Palestine
Summary: When Israeli military police killed two Palestinian teenagers, the event was recorded by security cameras, US news teams, and photographers. Using that footage, our audio and image analysis exposed a tactic by which Israeli personnel disguise live rounds as rubber-coated ‘non-lethal’ munitions.

I.11 Knock on the Roof: Drone strike in Beit Lahiya

Date of Incident: 09 Jan 2009
Location: Beit Lahiya, Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territories
Forums: United Nations, Exhibition, Media
Commissioned By: UN Special Rapporteur on Counter Terrorism and Human Rights
Summary: An anti-tank missile, fired at the home of the Salha family, left just a small hole in the roof. The bomb that followed three minutes later destroyed the house, killing six people. We interviewed surviving family members and investigated the tactics of the ‘warning shot’.

I.3 The Use of White Phosphorus in Urban Environments

Date of Incident: 27 Dec 2008 – 18 Jan 2009
Location: Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territories
Forums: United Nations
Commissioned By: Yesh Gvul, Michael Sfard Law Office
Summary: The 2008–2009 conflict saw the use by Israeli forces of white phosphorus, a toxic, flammable and corrosive airborne munition. We analysed the use and effects of the weapon in support of calls to make its use illegal, and presented our report to a 2012 UN convention.

I.2 The Killing of Bassem Abu Rahma

Date of Incident: 17 Apr 2009
Location: Bil'in, Occupied Palestinian Territories
Forums: Legal Process, Exhibition
Commissioned By: Michael Sfard Law Office, B’Tselem
Summary: An unarmed demonstrator was killed by a tear-gas canister fired across the West Bank barrier wall. The army denied it was intentional. We used footage from three cameras to prove that the soldier had intended to kill. Israeli authorities reopened the investigation, but no soldier was ever charged.