At least 5 US-funded projects in Gaza are damaged or destroyed, but most are spared
Less than a year before a Hamas attack from Gaza sparked war, one of the oldest and largest sports complexes in the Palestinian territories got a much-needed makeover: brand new basketball, volleyball and tennis courts, a soccer field, a running track and, for the most part, first, accessible bathrooms. It was a $519,000 upgrade funded by American taxpayers.
Now the roof of the Gaza Sports Club appears to have been torn to shreds, the AstroTurf field crushed under the weight of huge tanks, as seen in satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press.
Since early October, at least five US-funded community and youth projects in Gaza appear to have been damaged or destroyed, likely by the US-backed Israeli military. However, both past and present, Israeli attacks in Gaza appear to have largely spared major infrastructure projects funded by the US government, which for years has shared their GPS coordinates and other details with the Israeli military.
The Israeli offensive is a response to an Oct. 7 Hamas attack 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 about 1.9 million have fled their homes.
The United Nations has so far identified more than 37,000 structures destroyed or damaged during the war.
The U.S. has spent more than $7 billion on development and humanitarian assistance in the West Bank and Gaza since a U.S. Agency for International Development mission was established decades ago, including $270 million since President Joe Biden ended the shutdown of new funding in the Trump era. For decades, the US has also sent more than $3 billion a year to support the Israeli military, with the Biden administration promising more than $14 billion by 2023.
“It creates a bit of cognitive dissonance, I would say,” says Howard Sumka, who was USAID's mission director for Gaza and the West Bank between 2006 and 2010. “It is important for us to continue providing humanitarian and development assistance, and if the military comes and wipes it out, we will start all over again. But it's a bit Sisyphean.”
The AP reviewed U.S. contracts and grants in Gaza and identified more than 30 construction projects built or improved in the enclave by U.S. taxpayers. A review of recent satellite images and analysis from Maxar Technologies shows that while more than a dozen major US-backed projects appear to be intact, there is damage to at least five. The AP independently verified Maxar's assessment by examining its satellite images, as well as images from individual satellites captured by Planet Labs in recent weeks.
The Israeli military would not comment on damage to US-backed structures or provide any information about its targets.
The exact cause of the damage shown in the images cannot be determined from photographs alone. In some cases, news reports and government sources confirmed Israeli military strikes near US-backed projects in Gaza.
Israel blames Hamas for the damage, saying the group is using Gaza's civilian infrastructure as a cover for attacks, hiding fighters and weapons and building underground tunnels. It also says that hundreds of failed Hamas rockets aimed at Israel landed in Gaza instead.
The AP was unable to reach Palestinian officials in Gaza due to repeated communications failures.
The CEO and president of Anera, a US contractor that has built dozens of infrastructure projects in Gaza, including the Sports Club, called its destruction “a terrible tragedy.”
“This war is taking a terrible toll – on human lives and on the infrastructure of everyday life – that will be felt for decades,” said Sean Carroll.
In 2011, USAID contributed $138,000 to the construction of the Arab Orthodox Cultural Center, a two-story building complete with a theater, ballroom and lecture hall. Satellite images from October appear to show extensive damage to the center.
According to Maxar images from December 20, two different centers for children with disabilities appear to have been damaged or destroyed in recent days. 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 US funds, escaped unscathed, while at least one city block next to it was completely razed.
The Rosary Sisters School, which serves both Muslim and Christian children, suffered some damage in a recent airstrike. In 2022, $495,000 in American taxpayer dollars built new classrooms with smart boards, air conditioning, an elevator, and a brand new floor to make room for a high school.
Satellite images from Maxar show debris and damage scattered throughout the school's courtyard, which served as a basketball court and gathering place for hundreds of students.
But the school buildings themselves were still standing on November 22, as were most of Gaza's major US-funded projects, critical infrastructure in the impoverished region where clean drinking water was scarce even before the current war – including a desalination plant near Gaza. Deir Al Balah in Gaza, which the US spent $16 million on expanding, along with two water reservoirs and pumping facilities in Al Bureij and Al Maghazi, which together cost about $7 million.
That is likely the result of precise and extensive communications between U.S. officials and the Israeli military, several former USAID directors said. A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive diplomatic negotiations said the U.S. government's current engagement with Israel is focused on protecting civilians, but details about the locations of U.S.-funded infrastructure are readily available because of the long-term and continuous coordination.
Dave Harden, who served as USAID mission director from 2013 to 2016, said he worked “very closely” with Israeli officials.
“I would give them the coordinates and tell them not to hit it,” he said.
The USAID mission started with small improvements. With a budget of just $25 million, Christopher Crowley, USAID's first mission director for the West Bank and Gaza, who arrived after the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel signed the Oslo Peace Accords, oversaw the construction of a playground for Palestinian children.
Basketball courts followed, and soon American taxpayers were paying contractors to renovate roads and build apartments in Gaza.
Infrastructure projects, especially related to water access, were something the Palestinian and Israeli governments could agree on, and the United States served as a bridge between them, Crowley said. The idea was to help lay the foundation for a future Palestinian state alongside Israel.
In 1999, the new mission director, Larry Garber, had ambitious plans to build a vibrant economy in Gaza while promoting peace in the region. There would be strawberry markets and flower exports, a large desalination plant and a water system. At the same time, American taxpayers began paying Israel nearly $3 billion a year to support its military efforts.
Less than a year later, the second Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation broke out. There were both air raids and ground operations, with tanks and armored vehicles. Garber said he would meet with Israeli military leaders and ask them not to influence U.S.-backed projects.
“We literally told them, here are the geolocations of our various projects, and for the most part we had no incidents of destruction of those facilities at that time,” he said. However, Garber said he remembered USAID filing a complaint with Israeli authorities after four recently repaired agricultural wells were destroyed in an airstrike in 2003.
A roadside bombing hit a US diplomatic convoy that year, killing three Americans and prompting the US to ban its diplomatic staff from entering Gaza. USAID has continued to sponsor projects through local contractors.
Plans for a major U.S. water project were put on hold when Hamas took control of Gaza from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority in 2007, and USAID scaled back for years. The US considers Hamas, an Islamic militant group that has vowed to destroy Israel, a terrorist organization and has no direct contact with it.
“In my time, we didn't build any major roads, we didn't have any major water projects,” says Sumka, then the mission director. “We were forbidden to go in there.”
Development work resumed as tensions eased, said Mike Harvey, who was mission director from 2010 to 2013. But the cycle continued: The U.S. would build, advise Israeli authorities on infrastructure geolocation and hope for the best. Israel and Hamas have fought five wars and numerous skirmishes since late 2008.
“This reflects the priorities that the Israelis are placing on ensuring that no US-funded infrastructure is affected,” Harvey said, because of the obvious “inconvenience that that brings.”
The decision to rebuild USAID-branded projects again and again has also been part of a larger political strategy to turn the Palestinian people against Hamas, mission directors said.
“Humanitarian aid was the driving force,” Harvey said. But “it sends a political message to the people of Gaza: we are not their enemy.”
It's also about hope. The purpose of the mission in Gaza and the West Bank was to help stabilize the region and increase opportunities for Palestinians, ranging from brokering cross-border trade deals to education programs and infrastructure projects.
But the scale of this particularly violent and deadly war could also impact what USAID can achieve in the future. Nothing is built in Gaza without permission from Israel, which may be reluctant to greenlight major infrastructure projects without firm guarantees that Hamas will not reach supplies useful for weapons.
“Can you imagine how difficult it will be to rebuild Gaza after the scale of destruction we are seeing this time?” Harvey said.
Some former USAID directors said their hopes for Gaza's future are waning.
“There was always some hope that we could find a solution, as naive as that sounds,” Harden said. “I was always a believer. Unfortunately not anymore.”