ISTANBUL – Israel has dropped more than 70,000 tons of bombs on the Gaza Strip since last October, far surpassing Dresden, Hamburg, and London combined during World War II.

In late April, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor estimated that 70,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Gaza, covering a six-month period of the war between Oct. 7 and April 24.

“It is estimated that Israel has dropped more than 70,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip in addition to its bulldozing operations, resulting in the destruction of all buildings at a distance of up to one kilometer in the east and north of the Strip in order to create a so-called buffer zone,” according to the Geneva-based human rights monitor organization.

The Germans bombed London, dropping about 18,300 tons of bombs between 1940 and 1941, according to various estimates, including archives from the New York Times.

The Allies dropped 8,500 tons of bombs on Hamburg in the summer of 1943, said Hendrik Althoff, a research fellow at the Department of History at the University of Hamburg.

The Allies also used 3,900 tons of bombs on Dresden in February 1945, according to historical records.

Israel has continued its offensive on Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 36,500 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, mostly women and children, and nearly 83,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nearly eight months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6. (Anadolu)