The Cartographic War: How Google Earth Turned Gaza’s Ruins Into a Digital Battlefield

What happens when the tools we use to navigate the world are weaponized for the service of genocide?

In Gaza, Google Earth’s latest satellite imagery doesn’t just show destruction—it reflects a new front in Israel`s genocidal war.

Among the ruins of bombed homes and flattened neighborhoods, users have begun tagging locations with chilling labels like “Haunted house.” These pins appear over residential buildings Israel has obliterated, transforming sites of trauma into digital mockeries.

This is more than just bad taste or online trolling. It’s a disturbing example of how digital platforms can become complicit in psychological warfare and settler-colonial narratives. As physical erasure takes place on the ground, a parallel erasure and distortion unfolds online.

This investigation dives deep into how maps, satellites, and crowd-sourced tags are being used to manipulate memory, obscure accountability, and reshape public perception—turning Gaza’s ruins into a genocidal playground.

This is the cartographic war—one fought not only with bombs, but with pixels, platforms, and psychological tactics.

Read the investigation “The Cartographic War: How Google Earth Turned Gaza’s Ruins Into a Digital Battlefield”

Image: Artwork from the investigation. Source: UntoldMag, artist unidentified.