Geospatial dataset of northern Gaza evacuation scheme “superblocks” announced by Israeli army on October 6, 2024

This is an immediate release in digital form of the spatial data underlying the new evacuation and targeting scheme for northern Gaza announced by the Israeli army on October 6, 2024, and used the next day (today) in the army’s call for immediate evacuation of about 50 km2. This new scheme aggregates the “blocks” described in previous data deposits into larger “superblocks” with new labels, now used in army maps and announcements.

As with the prior army announcements and subsequent operationalization of an “evacuation block” scheme in December 2023 and a “humanitarian area” in July 2024, the areas declared for evacuation and targeting using this new “superblocks” scheme were not made available in a downloadable electronic form that would allow rapid utilization by humanitarian or local organizations, or by the media. I therefore converted the spatial information embedded in the official army site into polygons into standard unambiguous geospatial file formats, and made this available on the Harvard Dataverse repository. As with prior datasets in this series, the goal is to offer real-time support of improved renditions and use by other agencies and parties, as well as to possibly spur improved geospatial communication by agencies producing and releasing these maps. Those interested can superimpose this critical emergency communication on relevant base maps (satellite images, high resolution orthophoto, street maps, Google/Bing/OSM, or other) or use it for further analysis.

As with previous data releases, the “superblocks” polygons themselves are being released immediately, with fuller contextualization likely to follow. The methodology for extraction and conversion was similar to that described in earlier Dataverse deposits.

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For prior data releases and the background to their use, as well as methodology of extraction and conversion of the spatial data, see the previously released spatial datasets: December 4, 2023, “Geospatial dataset of Gaza targeting polygons publicized by the IDF on December 1, 2023,” https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/0HUXOJ). And July 2024, "Geospatial dataset and analysis of usability for emergency communications of the official maps of Gaza “Humanitarian Area” and evacuation blocks", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/9CRVCJ, Harvard Dataverse, V2