As the war enters its 38th day, a different battlefield picture emerges compared to what the Israeli military establishment attempts to portray. While military censorship imposes strict secrecy on the sites of rocket impacts, surveillance cameras and open sources have documented moments of Iranian and Hezbollah rockets breaching air defenses, revealing a targeting map that has reached the heart of central cities and sensitive facilities.
The Open Source Unit at Al Jazeera Net tracked dozens of scenes circulated through digital platforms, recording 25 videos captured by surveillance cameras since the war erupted on February 28. Following technical verification processes, a map was created indicating the sites of rocket impacts and the most affected and targeted areas.
Details of the Event
The map revealed 22 locations that suffered direct strikes as shown in the visual documentation, with most of the attacks concentrated in central Israel, including the Greater Tel Aviv area (Petah Tikva, Rishon Lezion, Ramat Gan, and Gush Dan), along with the cities of Lod and Beit Shemesh west of occupied Jerusalem.
The strikes extended to include vital targets in the north and south, with fragments documented falling in the Haifa refinery, and strikes targeting petrochemical factories within the city of Beersheba. Towns near the border with Lebanon, such as Kiryat Shmona, Ma'alot Tarshiha, and Avivim, faced intense bombardment, indicating a focus on military targets and sensitive industrial facilities.
Background & Context
The Open Source Team monitored these scenes after they circulated through Israeli accounts on platforms like Telegram, X, and Facebook. A notable paradox emerges as Israeli official media outlets have ignored publishing nearly half of these scenes on their platforms due to not obtaining military censorship approval, making Telegram and uncensored accounts the primary sources for disseminating these images and breaking the censor's barrier.
In this context, the Director-General of the Movement for Freedom of Information in Israel, Hedi Negev, revealed the intensity of military censorship during the current war, confirming the presence of a censor representative in television newsrooms throughout the day to review all materials before broadcasting. According to Negev's data, military censorship prevented the publication of 1,635 news stories in 2024, and prohibited the publication of parts within 6,265 other news stories, unprecedented figures reflecting the extent of intervention in preventing publication and obscuring information when it comes to security aspects.
Impact & Consequences
In terms of battlefield data, Iran launched approximately 450 rockets towards Israel during the first 31 days of the war. The newspaper Haaretz confirmed that at least 12 ballistic missiles directly hit Tel Aviv, Beit Shemesh, Jerusalem, Beersheba, DIMONA, Arad, Safed, and Hadera. Additionally, 42 cluster rockets breached the air defense system, releasing dozens of small bombs that struck over 230 locations, most of which were concentrated in central Israel.
These Iranian strikes resulted in the deaths of 16 people in Israel during the first month. In a development highlighting the increasing scale of defensive failure, the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported finding the bodies of 4 Israelis who were among the missing under the rubble of a building that suffered a direct Iranian strike in Haifa, where the systems failed to intercept the missile that fell without exploding.
Regional Significance
Alongside the Iranian strikes, Hezbollah intensified its rocket attacks from Lebanon, targeting extensive areas in northern and central Israel, including vital installations such as the satellite station in Beit Shemesh. The bombardment operations were clearly focused on cities and towns near the Lebanese border, a step the party confirmed through its statements aimed at forcing residents to evacuate and keeping the northern front in a state of continuous depletion.
In an analytical reading of this scene, Israeli affairs specialist Dr. Mohannad Mustafa believes that the war has entered a phase of "depletion" that has become a heavy burden on Israeli society. Mustafa points to a stark contradiction between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's repeated announcements about achieving victories and destroying Iran's missile capabilities, and the reality of continued Iranian rocket arrivals causing destruction and casualties.
The Israeli affairs expert concludes that the closure of airspace and the cancellation of international airlines—such as United Airlines—flights until next September has intensified public frustration, raising fundamental questions about the war's feasibility and its continuation.