🔗 Share this article

24 months of conflict have ravaged Gaza.

The Israeli bombing campaign and military incursion have resulted in over 67,000 Palestinian fatalities according to the Hamas-controlled health authority, almost the whole populace has been forced to move, and the UN says most homes have been destroyed or severely damaged.

The military operation came in response to Hamas’ unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 more were captured.

Israeli authorities claim it is attempting to dismantle the military and governing capabilities of the Islamist group, which is dedicated to the elimination of Israel and has been in control of Gaza since 2007.

A peace plan has been put forward by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would end the fighting immediately. Hamas has agreed to free all remaining hostages - alive and dead - and to hand over Gaza’s governance to independent Palestinian experts, but it has refused to agree to laying down arms or to giving up any future political role in the leadership of Gaza.

Gaza is merely 41km in length and 10km in width - about a quarter of the size of London - surrounded on three sides by sealed frontiers with Israel and Egypt and by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, where a naval blockade is enforced by Israel. It is inhabited by more than 2 million people.

Extent of Damage

Over nine out of ten residences are believed to be destroyed or damaged; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have broken down; and experts supported by the UN say there is famine in Gaza City.

A United Nations commission of inquiry says Israeli forces have perpetrated acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - although Israel has rejected the commission’s report, labeling it as "distorted and false".

This visual guide shows how Gaza has become in large parts uninhabitable.

Expansion of Damage

Israel's campaign initially focused on northern Gaza - where it claimed Hamas fighters were hiding among the non-combatant residents. Hamas denied this.

The town in the north of Beit Hanoun, only 2km (1.2 miles) from the frontier, was among the initial locations hit by Israeli strikes. It experienced severe destruction.

Israel continued to bomb Gaza City and other urban centres in the north and instructed residents to relocate southward of the Wadi Gaza river before it initiated its land offensive at the end of October 2023.

Simultaneously, Israel conducted aerial bombardments on the urban areas in the south which numerous Gaza residents from the north were fleeing towards. By the end of November, parts of the south of the territory lay in ruins, as did much of the north.

Israel intensified its bombing of southern and central Gaza at the beginning of December, before launching a ground offensive on Khan Younis, and by January 2024 more than half of Gaza's buildings had been damaged or destroyed.

By the time a truce was announced in January 2025 an approximately 60% of buildings across the Gaza Strip had been harmed, with Gaza City suffering the heaviest destruction. More than 46,000 Palestinians had been fatally wounded, as per Gaza's health ministry.

And the devastation has continued since Israel ended the ceasefire in the month of March - including in Rafah in the south. The UN estimates more than 90% of the residential buildings in Gaza have been affected during the war.

Humanitarian Crisis

During the conflict, the militant group - which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK and many other countries - and other armed groups affiliated with it have been engaged in intense battles against Israeli troops on the ground. They have also launched numerous projectiles into Israel, particularly during the initial phase of the war.

However, within Gaza, whole neighborhoods have been razed to the ground, hospitals and mosques have been obliterated and farmland where greenhouses once stood have been reduced to sand and rubble by armored vehicles and machinery used for demolitions by Israeli troops.

Israeli authorities state militants utilize civilian buildings such as medical centers for military purposes - but Hamas denies that.

Before the war, the majority of Gaza’s population lived in its four main cities - Rafah and Khan Younis in the south, Deir al-Balah city, in the centre, and the city of Gaza.

Within 10 days of October 7, 2023, Israel’s offensive had compelled almost 50% to leave their homes, according to the UN's Palestinian refugee agency.

And by the time the ceasefire was declared 15 months later, an estimated 1.9m people had been forcibly relocated - they continue to be unable to go back.

Families have moved repeatedly as Israel changed the emphasis of their campaign, first instructing people in the north to relocate southward of the Wadi Gaza waterway, which divides Gaza approximately in two, and later ordering people to leave a series of "evacuation zones" in the south.

Leaflet drops by the Israeli army alerted residents to leave ahead of operations in the area. However, not every Israeli attack are preceded by alerts.

Expansion of Restricted Zones

After the truce was terminated, it has designated an increasing number of regions of Gaza as no-go zones - where limitations are enforced - or imposing evacuation directives, meaning residents have been instructed to leave completely.

Initially the orders to evacuate applied to two areas - in the North Gaza and Khan Younis governorates - with a “no-go” area in place along the whole border.

Humanitarian organizations have to co-ordinate with the Israeli government to work within the "no-go" areas.

Israel had also blocked any relief supplies from entering Gaza at the beginning of March - alleging that Hamas was commandeering it. Limited aid is now permitted to enter, although aid agencies still say it is nowhere near enough.

By the beginning of April every bakery supported by the UN in Gaza had been closed, most fresh vegetables were in very limited supply and hospitals were rationing medications and antibiotics.

The humanitarian organization ActionAid warned that a "new cycle of starvation and thirst" loomed.

The Israeli Defense Minister declared on April 16 that Israel would establish security zones in Gaza to create a protective barrier to protect Israeli communities following the conclusion of hostilities - the group has demanded that Israeli forces must withdraw from Gaza under any permanent ceasefire.

During that period almost 70% of Gaza was impacted by limitations imposed by Israel - encompassing most of the North Gaza and Gaza City governorates in the north and the whole of the Rafah governorate in the south, according to the UN.

And in the month of May, Israel initiated a land operation named Operation Gideon’s Chariots, which the Prime Minister stated would aim to secure the release of the 48 captives still held - 20 of which are thought to be alive - and "finish the destruction" of the Palestinian armed group.

Since then the regions affected by displacement orders and other restrictions have been expanded to include 82% of Gaza, according to the UN.

The first phase of the operation focused on objectives within Rafah, Khan Younis and northern Gaza but in the month of August Israel revealed intentions to capture and occupy all of Gaza City itself - which it has referred to as the “last stronghold” of Hamas.

The city had been the most crowded part of the territory before the war, with 775,000 people residing there.

Those who remained there were ordered to move south to al-Mawasi in the southwestern part of the Strip which Israel has designated as a “humanitarian area” - even though it has persisted in conducting lethal attacks there and which the UN said was already overpopulated and dangerous.

Hundreds of thousands of residents have thus far evacuated Gaza City, where a starvation was verified in August 2025 by a UN-backed body.

But many more thousands remain there in severe living conditions, with health and other essential services collapsing.

International Response

In September 2025, multiple nations, {including