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Bird's eye view : documenting Gaza from its skies
Journalists filming with drones have been regularly killed or injured in Israeli strikes. One of them, Mahmoud Isleem Al-Basos, collaborated on the Gaza Project. To continue his work, Forbidden Stories and its partners used his drone footage to create immersive 3D models of two locations in Gaza.
3D model of Al-Shati camp in northern Gaza, based on drone footage (Credit: Forbidden Stories / Mahmoud Isleem Al-Basos. 3D model: Bellingcat / Thomas Bordeaux).
By Magdalena Hervada and Youssr Youssef.
March 27, 2025
Jake Godin (Bellingcat), Thomas Bordeaux (volunteer for Bellingcat’s Global Authentication project) et Hoda Osman (ARIJ) contributed to this article.
Journalists filming with drones have been regularly killed or injured in Israeli strikes. One of them, Mahmoud Isleem Al-Basos, collaborated on the Gaza Project. To continue his work, Forbidden Stories and its partners used his drone footage to create immersive 3D models of two locations in Gaza.
In 2023, Mahmoud Isleem Al-Basos had just obtained his bachelor’s degree in journalism and was planning to pursue a master’s. The war put an end to the young journalist’s plans. He was killed on March 15, 2025, at the age of 25, while covering a humanitarian mission in Beit Lahia.
His friend and mentor, Shadi Al-Tabatibi, never planned on teaching Al-Basos how to be a drone journalist.
“[Before the war], he contacted me on Instagram. He wanted to learn from me, but I didn’t have the time. Twice, he asked me where my next reports would be, and when I arrived, he’d already be there, waiting for me,” said Al-Tabatibi, now in exile in Cairo, to our partners at ARIJ. “I like ambitious people who are constantly looking to improve themselves. And I found that in Mahmoud.”
When Al-Tabatibi left to take refuge in the southern Gaza Strip, where he continued to film the war with his drone, he entrusted his protégé with his assignments in the north. This is how Al-Basos began providing images to international media outlets such as Reuters and Anadolu. A few weeks before his death—which the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) described as ‘murder’—he contributed footage to the Gaza Project. He used his drone to follow in the footsteps of other Palestinian journalists, who had been targeted while trying to capture their homeland from above.
Al-Basos provided a rare glimpse into the destruction of northern Gaza, in the Al-Shati and Jabalia refugee camps. Thanks to his images, Forbidden Stories and the online investigative group Bellingcat have produced two 3D models, that bring to life the work of journalists injured or killed while reporting in Gaza. Among them, now, is Mahmoud Isleem Al-Basos.
Gaza through the lens of photogrammetry
As he filmed during the ceasefire, Al-Basos followed a well-defined protocol. He flew his drone in successive circles, in order to capture photos of the camps from as many angles as possible. They were then assembled into an immersive 3D model of the Al-Shati and Jabalia camps. This technique, used for the first time at this scale in Gaza since the start of the war, is called photogrammetry.
“It’s really a unique way of looking at the terrain,” said geolocation and satellite imagery specialist for Bellingcat Jake Godin. “It’s simpler to look at Gaza from satellite imagery, because drone footage isn’t easy to come by. But when you can get it, it gives a much higher level of detail.”
“Satellite images can cover a large area, but they’re sometimes hard to interpret. Ground-level footage provides the best insight into what people on the ground are experiencing but does not offer an overall view of the area,” explains Thomas Bordeaux, a volunteer with Bellingcat’s Global Authentication Project and a specialist in 3D modeling. “These 3D models, like the drone images they are derived from, are so powerful because they do both.”
This approach has allowed us to provide unprecedented insight into the immense damage that eighteen months of war have inflicted on these once-vibrant districts.
Al-Shati
The Al-Shati camp before the war and during the ceasefire. (Source: Shadi Al-Tabatibi / Forbidden Stories / Mahmoud Isleem Al-Basos, 2023 / 2025.
Abdallah Al-Hajj’s drone took off amid the rubble of Al-Shati camp on February 24, 2024, to film what little remained of the buildings along the coastline. The drone photographer used to go there to capture the beauty of Gaza’s northern shore before the war. On that day, he was targeted by a drone strike in which he lost both of his legs.
“There is a contrast there between the grey rubble and the bright blue sea. That’s what I wanted to show with these images,” Al-Hajj told us. He knew the risks associated with this report, but he felt a professional responsibility. “All the others were dead. I was the only one left who could do it,” he said.
After the attack on Al-Hajj, many of his peers gave up using their drones to get aerial views of the destruction. The ceasefire, which lasted between January 19 and March 18, 2025, opened a window of possibility. Through Al-Basos, Forbidden Stories and its partners were able to fly a drone over Al-Shati, so that the contrast Al-Hajj observed could be witnessed by all.
Source : Forbidden Stories/Mahmoud Isleem Al-Basos. Photogrammetry model : Bellingcat/Thomas Bordeaux.
Jabalia
The Jabalia camp before the war and during the ceasefire. Source: Shadi Al-Tabatibi / Forbidden Stories / Mahmoud Isleem Al-Basos, 2023 / 2025.
Before the war, Jabalia was the largest and most densely populated refugee camp in Gaza. Today, it is known for being one of the territory’s most devastated areas. Since October 7, 2023, it has suffered three Israeli military campaigns—the first in October 2023, the second in May 2024, and the third in October 2024. Evacuation orders have left hundreds of thousands displaced. The harsh conditions on the ground prevented most journalists from sharing what was happening. Fadi Al-Wahidi, a journalist for Al Jazeera, was paralyzed after being shot in the neck while covering the October 2024 incursion.
Some neighborhoods were completely leveled, and the people who remained inside the camp suffered from famine, a lack of drinking water, and the absence of healthcare centers. During the ceasefire, some residents returned to pitch their tents on the rubble. On March 24, 2025, a week after the resumption of Israeli bombardments, the army ordered a new evacuation of all Jabalia residents.
Source : Forbidden Stories/Mahmoud Isleem Al-Basos. Photogrammetry model : Bellingcat/Thomas Bordeaux.
Gaza in ruins
The Israeli bombardments on the Gaza Strip have had a devastating impact on infrastructure. According to a UN press release, over 90% of housing units have been destroyed or damaged. The World Bank, the European Union, and the United Nations estimate that 95% of hospital infrastructure is no longer operational.
International media have widely documented the Israeli army’s desire for mass destruction. Bellingcat found online testimonies from soldiers who said they have become “addicted” to the explosions. A CNN report quoted former reservists, one of whom claimed that they were given daily quotas of bombs to detonate. The New York Times showed that Israel has dropped bombs of enormous caliber—nearly a ton each—on the area it designated as safe for civilians at least 200 times. These actions have claimed more than 50,000 victims according to the latest figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, under Hamas administration.
Faced with the deadly human toll of this disaster, the United Nations Special Committee in charge of investigating Israeli practices stated in a report that these methods are “consistent with genocide.”
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