Friday, October 13, 2023

Israel / Palestine Map: Height of Hamas Control in 2023 Invasion (October 7, 2023)

There are newer editions of this map available. To see them, view all Israel articles or Palestine articles on PolGeoNow.

This map shows the approximate situation on the afternoon of October 7, 2023, when control by Hamas and its allies reached farthest into Israel. Now, several days later, Israeli forces are thought to have reversed almost all those gains, returning the lines of control to roughly their same positions as just before the invasion.

Map of who controlled Palestine and Israel's claimed territories on the afternoon of October 7, 2023, at the greatest extent of penetration into Israel by the Hamas invasion. Shows both Israeli and Palestinian Authority administration (Fatah and Hamas factions indicated separately). Includes bigger West Bank map (Area A, Area B, and Area C). Map also includes Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, major cities and Israeli settlements, UN peacekeeper deployments (UNIFIL in Lebanon and UNDOF in Syria), no man's land, Golan Heights buffer zone (area of separation, AOS), and Shebaa Farms. Colorblind accessible. Also file under: Map of Hamas attack on Israel.
Click to enlarge. Map by Evan Centanni, incorporating base map by Koen Adams of onestopmap.com and data from B'Tselem's interactive mapping project. (Contact us for permission to use this map.)


Timeline by Djordje Djukic

2023 Israel-Hamas War: How much of Israel did Hamas Capture in its Invasion?

Last Saturday, just a day after the 50th anniversary of Israel's last full-scale war, the country was once again thrust into massive turmoil. In an unprecedented invasion of Israel proper, forces of hardline Palestinian party Hamas and smaller allied groups burst out of their stronghold in the Gaza Strip, briefly doubling their area of control while killing hundreds of Israeli civilians and soldiers alike. The above map shows the approximate situation at the height of Hamas and allied control, later on the same day that the invasion began.

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Israel / Palestine Map: Who Controlled What Before the 2023 Hamas Invasion?

This article was originally published in July 2020, but has been revised and updated to October 2023. The design of the accompanying map has also been slightly revised, but there were no changes to territorial control between the previous edition and this one except for the reopening of the Gaza fishing zone.

This map shows the situation just before the current war began. For the war itself, check out our new map showing control at the height of the October 2023 Hamas invasion the next day.

Map of who controlled Palestine and Israel's claimed territories on October 6, 2023, just before Hamas's invasion and the start of the current war. Shows both Israeli and Palestinian Authority administration (Fatah and Hamas factions indicated separately). Includes bigger West Bank map (Area A, Area B, and Area C). Map also includes Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, major cities and Israeli settlements, UN peacekeeper deployments (UNIFIL in Lebanon and UNDOF in Syria), no man's land, Golan Heights buffer zone (area of separation, AOS), and Shebaa Farms. Colorblind accessible. Also file under: Palestine controlled area map, How much of Israel is Palestinian land?
Click to enlarge. Map by Evan Centanni, incorporating base map by Koen Adams of onestopmap.com and data from B'Tselem's interactive mapping project. (Contact us for permission to use this map.)

Israel and Palestine Controlled Areas: Before the War

October 2023's surprise invasion of Israel by Palestinian fighters from the Gaza Strip has catapulted the area back to the top of world headlines, and the situation on the ground is now in flux. But what exactly was the situation just before this new chapter of the conflict started? This newly-revised version of PolGeoNow's Israel/Palestine explainer article answers all your questions about who's who and what the significance of each disputed zone is. 

The accompanying map has also been slightly revised and newly fact-checked to ensure that it shows the situation accurately as of October 6, 2023, the night before the Hamas-led invasion of Israel (the only change to control is that the Gaza Strip fishing zone was apparently open for most of this year, rather than closed as it was at the time of our 2021 update).

Note that this is a map of who actually controls what, not of who claims which areas. And it's definitely not supposed to imply that any particular party should or shouldn't control any particular area. As always, PolGeoNow takes no side in these disputes, and we have done our best to report only the facts.

Sunday, September 3, 2023

Map Update: Record Number of African Union Members Suspended (Sep. 2023)

African Union Members: Map of Africa showing which countries are suspended from the AU in September 2023, as well as which countries are active members and which territories aren't part of the union. Updated for the suspensions of Guinea, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Niger, and Gabon for coups over the past two years (colorblind accessible).
Map by Evan Centanni, from blank map by Eric Gaba. License: CC BY-SA

AU Suspensions at All-time High

There are now a record of six member countries banned from participation in the African Union (AU), after Niger and Gabon were both suspended in August 2023. AU suspensions are almost always a response to a government overthrow in a member country, implying that coups in Africa are now at their highest point in the organization's 21-year history. The number is also up drastically from our previous African Union map update in June 2021, when we reported that only two countries were currently suspended.

Map: Which Countries are in the African Union?

Correction (2023-09-04): This article was still displaying the previous version of the map after its text was updated yesterday. It has now been fixed.

This map and explainer will be updated whenever there's a change in AU membership, including suspensions and reinstatements. News about each change will be published in separate articles, which you can find listed below, or by viewing all African Union content on PolGeoNow.

African Union Members: Map of Africa showing which countries are suspended from the AU in September 2023, as well as which countries are active members and which territories aren't part of the union. Updated for the suspensions of Guinea, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Niger, and Gabon for coups over the past two years (colorblind accessible).
Map by Evan Centanni, from blank map by Eric Gaba. License: CC BY-SA

What is the African Union?

Launched in 2002 as a replacement for the earlier Organization of African Unity (OAU), the African Union (AU) is an intergovernmental organization that works on increasing cooperation, stability, and development within the continent of Africa. The organization is headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (Ethiopia is the only African country that the European empires never colonized, and is also the second most populous country on the continent.)

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Ukraine: Map of Russian Control in August 2023 (Subscription)

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Research by Djordje Djukic. Map by Evan Centanni and Djordje Djukic

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Thumbnail previewing map of Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine on June 30, 2023. In addition to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia had already seized in 2014, and parts of the far eastern Donetsk and Luhansk provinces (the Donbas region) already controlled by Russia-backed separatist rebels (and formerly declared independent as the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics), Russian forces still control a wide belt of territory just north of Crimea, including large parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces, as well as large additional areas of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. Ukraine has recently made small advances southward in Zaporizhzhia and western Donetsk. Meanwhile, all of those provinces are now claimed by the Russian government as parts of Russia, creating a new claimed international border through what was until recently undisputed eastern Ukraine. Map includes key locations from the news, such as Orikhiv, Velyka Novosilka, Piatykhatky, the Kakhovka Dam, and more. Colorblind accessible.

Ukraine's counteroffensive against Russian control has made modest progress, even as its forces lose a comparable amount of ground in bits and pieces along the rest of the front. In particular, Russia has pushed back into parts of Kharkiv province while Ukraine makes gains in the south.

(The maps in this report show the situation as of August 18. Territorial changes since that time, including the reported Ukrainian capture of Robotyne, will be covered in the next report.)

See all this and more on the latest update to PolGeoNow's concise, professional Ukraine war control map, which includes a detailed chronicle of changes and events since our previous Ukraine map report of June 30, with sources cited, as well as a close-up map of control within the claimed borders of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (which now claim to be self-governing regions within Russia).

This map and report are premium content, available to paid subscribers of the PolGeoNow Conflict Mapping Service.

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Exclusive map report includes:

  • Up-to-date illustration of current territorial control in Ukraine, color-coded for the Ukrainian government on one side and the Russian military and allied forces on the other side, with areas of uncertainty indicated. Colorblind accessible.
  • Darker color indicating which areas were already under Russian or allied control before the 2022 invasion began
  • Lines showing Russia's claimed border after its annexations of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson provinces.
  • Preview thumbnail of map of territorial control within the claimed borders of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Lugansk People's Republic (LPR), which now consider themselves part of Russia, updated to June 30, 2023, after Russia completed its capture of Bakhmut. Map shows that the vast majority of the LPR, otherwise known as Ukraine's Luhansk province, is now under the control of Russia, while Russian forces also control over half of the DPR, or Ukraine's Donetsk province, including the major central and southern cities of Donetsk, Horlivka, Makiyivka, and Mariupol. Includes key locations from the news, such as Velyka Novosilka, Makarivka, Klischivka, Adviikva, and many more. Colorblind accessible.
    Donbas close-up map
    Close-up map of territorial control within the self-proclaimed boundaries of the Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic, which now claim to be part of Russia
  • Detailed indication of city-by-city control, including key towns and other locations important to current events
  • Locations of recent control changes and other important events, including Robotyne, Piatykhatky, Synkivka, Kyslivka, Kotlyarivka, Staromaiorske, Urozhaine, Berkhivka, Karmazynivka, and more
  • Detailed timeline of important events and changes to territorial control since June 30, 2023, with links to sources.

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