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US sent record amount of military aid to Israel after October 7
The US has supplied Israel with at least $17.9bn in military aid since its war on Gaza began on October 7 last year, according to a report for Brown University’s Costs of War project.
The report, released on the anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, says expenditure includes $4bn towards replenishing Israel’s Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile defence systems, as well as cash for guns and jet fuel.
The report states that an additional $4.86bn in funding was supplied to US military operations in the Middle East during that timeframe.
This figure includes the costs associated with the US military’s campaign to quell Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, which the Yemen-based group says it’s carrying out in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
The calculations were made by Linda J Bilmes, a professor at Harvard’s John F Kennedy School of Government, who assessed the cost of US wars since the September 11 attacks, along with researchers William D Hartung and Stephen Semler.
How Israel destroyed the Gaza Strip
Gaza, home to some 2.3 million people, bears little resemblance to what it was a year ago.
Israeli attacks on Gaza have reduced entire neighbourhoods to rubble, erased centuries-old mosques and churches and destroyed vital agricultural lands.
The scale of destruction in this small area of just 365sq km (141sq miles) is so immense that many residents cannot return home – and likely won’t be able to for the foreseeable future.
Satellite images from Al Jazeera’s digital investigation team, Sanad, reveal cratered terrain, scorched farmlands and the grey ruins of flattened buildings.
Explore the before and after images of the destruction here.
‘A war of revenge’
Giving the perspective of the majority of Israeli society, Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat, says there’s little thought about the nearly 42,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza over the past year.
“For the first few months, Israelis were rarely aware of what was going on in Gaza,” he told Al Jazeera, adding the scope of death and destruction being inflicted wasn’t accurately portrayed in the Israeli media.
“Then came the ‘we don’t care, look at what they did to us’ mentality. Look, it’s very human, it’s very natural. It’s not right,” explained Pinkas. “You need to be aware of what’s going on because that would foment the next round of hostilities and violence.”
As more images emerged from war-battered Gaza over time, “Israelis’ positions became more hardened”, he said.
“People called it a war of revenge, and yeah it’s a war of revenge … And you know what, any other country would’ve done the same thing … The fact the rest of the world was aggravated, annoyed, and frustrated [over the war] didn’t seem to matter to most Israelis.”
