Joe Rogan Says 90% of Gaza Is 'Gone,' Likens Damage to a 'Small Nuclear Bomb'

Joe Rogan said the destruction of Gaza is "not much difference" from a small nuclear bomb and estimated that "something like 90%" of the territory is gone. The United Nations' latest satellite count does not go that far. It finds that about 82 percent of Gaza's structures have sustained some degree of damage, and that roughly two-thirds of those, a little over half of all buildings in the territory, have been destroyed.

The remarks came near the end of a two-and-a-half-hour episode of The Joe Rogan Experience with Siddharth Kara, the author of Cobalt Red and the new book The Zorg, that otherwise centered on mining in the Congo and the Atlantic slave trade. They land as the UN Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) reports that destruction in Gaza has kept rising since a ceasefire took effect in October 2025.

"And again, we always talk about Gaza. If you looked at Gaza, you're seeing a prolonged campaign of bombs. But isn't the ultimate result kind of very similar to someone dropping a nuclear bomb?" Rogan asked.

"A small nuclear bomb, like what they did with Little Boy or Fat Man, not much difference in the amount of destruction. Something like 90% of Gaza's gone," he continued.

Kara agreed. "The explosive power of what's been dropped on Gaza now, it probably is akin to Fat Man," he said, referring to the plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki in August 1945.

"Well, it looks like a hydrogen bomb, just detonated there. That's what it looks like. Everything's completely flattened. Just dust," Rogan replied, adding that the damage had accumulated "slowly, boom, boom, boom, boom, not one big boom."

What UNOSAT Satellite Data Shows About Gaza Destruction

Rogan's 90 percent figure tracks a claim by the Hamas-run Gaza government, which said in an October 2025 statement that Israel had dropped more than 200,000 tons of explosives and destroyed nearly 90 percent of the enclave.

The UN's independent satellite tally is lower, and it counts something different. In an assessment released on August 13, UNOSAT found that about 82 percent of structures in Gaza—roughly 200,000 buildings—are damaged, with two-thirds of those destroyed. The number of destroyed structures rose 9 percent after the ceasefire was declared, according to UN News.

That 82 percent covers every damage category, from buildings flattened outright to those UNOSAT classifies as only possibly damaged. On the narrower measure of buildings destroyed, the UN count comes to a little more than half of Gaza's structures. By either measure, Rogan's 90 percent overstates what the satellite record shows, though the direction of the trend is not in dispute. The agency put damage at 18 percent of structures in November 2023, 30 percent in January 2024 and 66 percent in September 2024, before the latest 82 percent reading.

How the Gaza Bombardment Compares to Hiroshima

The nuclear comparison Rogan and Kara reached for has been made before, with widely varying numbers. Paul Rogers, emeritus professor of peace studies at the University of Bradford, estimated in April 2025 that "something like 70,000 tonnes of explosives" had been dropped on Gaza, or roughly six Hiroshimas at the 12-kiloton yield he used.

The Arms Control Association puts the Hiroshima bomb at about 15 kilotons and the Nagasaki bomb at 21 kilotons. By Rogers' tally, the conventional ordnance used in Gaza would exceed Fat Man's yield several times over.

But none of these conversions come from a government audit, and the underlying tonnage estimates depend on assumptions about bomb weights and target counts. Scientists for Global Responsibility, a British research group, cautioned in its own analysis that "it is problematic to make a direct comparison because the damage mechanisms are very different," since a nuclear weapon produces a fireball, a single blast wave and radiation that conventional bombs do not. Rogers made a related point in the other direction: because conventional bombs fall individually, their destruction is spread across a far wider area.

Ceasefire, Bomb Shipments and 'Bloodlust' on Both Sides

Rogan also said, "I think we just shipped a record number of bombs, or we're going to ship a record number of bombs over there." Two U.S. officials told NBC News last week that the Trump administration has approved a $2.8 billion sale of 40,000 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. The dollar figure is smaller than a nearly $3 billion sale approved last year and a $6.67 billion package approved in January, but the bomb count tells a different story: NBC reported that last year's nearly-$3-billion sale included more than 35,500 of the same bombs, fewer than the 40,000 now headed to Israel. On the measure Rogan actually invoked, the number of bombs rather than their price, the new sale may be the largest yet.

The ceasefire brokered under President Donald Trump's peace plan remains in place but is under strain. Israeli airstrikes killed at least three people in Gaza on Saturday, including the son of the territory's health ministry director-general, and Gaza health officials say more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed since the truce began. The Israeli military said it struck "several militants" on Saturday.

Trump, whose administration negotiated the ceasefire and approved the bomb sale, stands at 38.8 percent approval and 58.2 percent disapproval in PolitiKool's polling average.

Rogan said young people have "had enough" of the war. "Most young people are ... absolutely horrified by it. It's the people that can justify it somehow that are really scary," he said.

Kara offered a broader framing. "I think the average person in that part of the world, the average Palestinian, the average Jewish person is fed up too, of conflict," he said. Rogan agreed, adding, "And they have these leaders who have bloodlust. On both sides. On both sides."

What To Watch For Next

UNOSAT's next comprehensive assessment will show whether the post-ceasefire rise in destroyed structures has continued through the fall. Separately, Congress has been informally notified of the pending bomb sale, and the deal's formal notification would open a window for lawmakers to object. Rogan closed the exchange by noting that when he was in high school, "peace in the Middle East" was treated "like it was a joke." "Here we are," he said. "It's more of the same."