Forensic Architecture Report: A Cartography of Genocide
A forensic map of destruction revealing the systematic erasure of life in Gaza.
Forensic Architecture (FA) is a research agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London, specialising in the investigation of human rights violations through spatial and architectural analysis. Their work has been presented in courts, international bodies, and truth commissions around the world, combining advanced digital modelling, satellite imagery, and open-source investigation to expose patterns of violence and state abuse.
In their latest report, A Cartography of Genocide, FA documents Israel’s military conduct in Gaza from October 2023 to September 2024. Using thousands of geolocated data points, the report reveals a systematic campaign of destruction—targeting civilians, infrastructure, and humanitarian lifelines—in what FA identifies as a spatial architecture of extermination.
The findings are damning. Drawing from thousands of verified data points, the report maps the cumulative impact of Israeli military actions between October 2023 and September 2024. This includes mass displacement, the destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure, targeting of aid convoys, and the obliteration of cultural, agricultural, and civilian spaces. Forensic Architecture (FA) stops short of making legal conclusions, but their spatial analysis presents powerful evidence of design, not randomness—a campaign calculated to make life impossible for Palestinians in Gaza.
This is a deliberate architecture of annihilation.
FA outlines how Israel’s conduct mirrors genocidal frameworks previously identified in Guatemala and Namibia—namely, mass displacement through the destruction of essential infrastructure and the transformation of territory to eliminate return. Gaza is increasingly unliveable by design.
Key findings include:
Over 1.9 million people displaced, often multiple times, by evacuation orders that pushed civilians into unsafe areas—often later targeted again.
Systematic targeting of healthcare: 77 hospitals and clinics were rendered non-functional.
Widespread bombing of farmland, greenhouses, and water systems, pushing communities into famine and dependency.
Destruction of schools, mosques, cemeteries, and cultural sites.
Repeated attacks on aid convoys and infrastructure, with “safe” zones often bombed shortly after being declared humanitarian corridors.
Establishment of fortified corridors and buffer zones erasing viable living space—cutting off Gaza into isolated, devastated regions.
All this took place alongside inflammatory and often genocidal rhetoric from Israeli officials. The report correlates military actions with statements made by Israeli leaders expressing intent to depopulate Gaza, destroy its infrastructure, and prevent Palestinians’ return.
This is not chaos. It is control.
The report makes clear: this is not incidental “collateral damage.” The destruction is patterned, targeted, and geographically coherent—supported by military road systems, strategic occupation of key settlements, and a siege framework refined over 17 years.
What FA calls a “spatial weaponisation” of Gaza—where infrastructure becomes the battleground—aligns with Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention: “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
Forensic Architecture calls on the international community to act.
FA provides this report to aid legal proceedings already underway, including South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the ICJ. The evidence is offered not only to support legal accountability, but to urge decisive global intervention.
This report is not only a record of what has been done. It is a warning of what is still unfolding.
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Article Series Zionism
