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 US-funded community and youth projects in Gaza appear to have been damaged or destroyed, likely by the US-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 US government, which has shared their GPS coordinates and other details with the Israeli military for years.
