How small an area?

I sometimes write about mathematics. This is not a post about mathematics. This is a post about Palestine. This is a post mostly written for New Yorkers.

I support an immediate ceasefire, and a permanent ceasefire. But this post is not about a ceasefire. It is about area. It is “geometry” in the sense of “geo” + “metry” or “Earth” + “measurement.” It makes distances and areas in Gaza more understandable by comparing them to distances and areas we (New Yorkers) are familiar with.

The Gaza Strip is small. Everyone knows that. But most people don’t have much of a sense of the size of things. I am writing to help you understand area and distance.

I read somewhere that Gaza is the size of Manhattan. I knew that was not true. Gaza is bigger. And I saw some detailed maps from the BBC. And they had scales of miles… and I knew I could make the numbers more meaningful for readers.

The Gaza Strip is 141 square miles. Brooklyn (70) + Queens (108) are 178 square miles combined. The Gaza Strip is about 80% the area of Brooklyn + Queens.

Those scales are pretty close –

Gaza is 25 miles long (roughly). The distance from Seagate (past Coney Island) to Fort Totten (past Bayside) is a 23 mile walk (according to Google Maps). As the crow flies it’s probably closer to 20. And so on the map, measure the length of the Gaza coastline, and measure the distance from Sea Gate to Fort Totten. Should be close, with Gaza about 25% longer.

So Gaza stretches a little longer than Brooklyn and Queens combined, but only 4/5ths the area. “Narrow.”

Israel limits (before the current conflict) Gaza’s fisherman to 5 miles from shore. The same limit on Brooklyn/Queens boats might get them to the tip of Sandy Hook, but not the Jersey Shore, maybe Great Kills, but definitely not Tottenville, parts of New Rochelle, but not Mamaroneck. (Blue for yes, or maybe. Red for no.)

Brooklyn and Queens have combined about 4.8 million residents. Gaza has 2.3 million. That makes Brooklyn and Queens denser – at about 27,000/square mile – than Gaza – at about 16,000/square mile. On the other hand, Gaza had far less housing (before October 7). Overcrowding was already a real problem.

When the Israeli army ordered Palestinian civilians in Gaza to move south, this was the territory north of Wadi Gaza, about 60 square miles, a little smaller than Brooklyn. That’s about 40% of the area of the Gaza strip. Likewise, Brooklyn is about 40% of Brooklyn and Queens combined. So it’s something like ordering everyone living in Brooklyn to move to Queens in a few days or become a “legitimate target.”

But unlike Queens, the Israeli army has destroyed or made uninhabitable half of all buildings in Gaza. (the red bits on the map below.)

The Israeli army has now ordered most Palestinians in the south of Gaza to evacuate. Where? There is a “Masawi Humanitarian Zone” in the southwest – less than 4 square miles. (see the BBC map, above). This is a bit smaller than Canarsie. 2.3 million people, even with the worst crowding, could not possibly fit.

I can imagine people who have never left Brooklyn or Queens, their whole lives. It definitely happens. But it’s a choice. And even for most of them, there was probably a trip into Nassau, or an occasional foray into Manhattan.

For Palestinians in Gaza? Most have lived where you see, in the maps, and have never left. Never traveled. Never seen “the River.” Not their choice. And as tiny as that world is, imagine losing 40% of it overnight. 50% of the buildings. And now, really, 95% of the space? I can make the numbers real, but it is not just numbers, and what it is, that reality I cannot begin to imagine.