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24 months of fighting have devastated Gaza.

Israel’s 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 displaced, and the UN says most homes have been destroyed or severely damaged.

The offensive was launched after Hamas’ unprecedented assault across the border on 7 October 2023, in which approximately 1,200 individuals were slain and 251 others were captured.

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

A ceasefire proposal has been put forward by American President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would halt hostilities at once. Hamas has agreed to free all remaining hostages - living and deceased - and to hand over Gaza’s governance to Palestinian technocrats, but it has not committed to disarmament or to giving up any political involvement in Gaza’s leadership.

Gaza is merely 41km in length and 10km in width - roughly one-fourth the area of London - bordered on three sides by sealed frontiers with Egypt and Israel and by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, where a naval blockade is enforced by Israel. It is home to over two million residents.

Scale of Destruction

Over nine out of ten residences are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the medical, water, and sanitation infrastructure have collapsed; and UN-backed experts say there is famine in Gaza City.

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

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

How the Destruction Spread

The Israeli operation initially focused on northern Gaza - where it said militants 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 border, was among the initial locations struck by airstrikes. It sustained severe destruction.

Israel continued to bomb Gaza City and additional cities in the north and instructed residents to relocate southward of the Wadi Gaza river before it launched its ground invasion at the conclusion of October 2023.

But Israel was also launching aerial bombardments on the southern cities which hundreds of thousands of Gazans 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.

Israeli forces escalated its airstrikes on southern and central Gaza at the start of December, before initiating a land assault on Khan Younis, and by January 2024 more than half of Gaza's buildings had been destroyed or damaged.

By the time a ceasefire was declared in early 2025 an approximately 60% of structures throughout Gaza had been harmed, with Gaza City experiencing the most severe damage. More than 46,000 Palestinians had been fatally wounded, as per the Gaza health authority.

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

Humanitarian Catastrophe

Throughout the war, Hamas - which is classified as a terror group by multiple nations including Israel and the UK - and additional factions allied to it have been engaged in fierce combat against Israeli troops on the ground. They have also fired thousands of rockets into Israel, especially in the first months of the war.

However, within Gaza, whole neighborhoods have been razed to the ground, medical facilities and places of worship have been obliterated and agricultural land where greenhouses previously existed have been turned into debris and dust by armored vehicles and machinery used for destruction by Israeli troops.

Israeli authorities state militants utilize civilian buildings such as hospitals for armed operations - but the group denies these claims.

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

In just 10 days of 7 October 2023, Israel’s offensive had forced nearly half to abandon their residences, according to the UN's Palestinian refugee agency.

And by the time the truce was implemented 15 months later, an approximately 1.9 million individuals had been forcibly relocated - they remain unable to return home.

Families have moved multiple times as Israel changed the emphasis of their campaign, first instructing people in the north to move south of Wadi Gaza river, which cuts the Strip roughly in half, and subsequently directing people to leave a series of "safe zones" in the south.

Airdropped leaflets by the Israeli military warned people to leave ahead of operations in the area. However, not every Israeli attack are preceded by alerts.

Restricted Areas Grow

Since Israel ended the ceasefire, it has designated an increasing number of regions of Gaza as no-go zones - where limitations are enforced - or imposing evacuation directives, meaning Gazans have been told to leave completely.

Initially the orders to evacuate covered two regions - in the North Gaza and Khan Younis governorates - with a “no-go” area in place along the entire frontier.

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

Israeli forces had also prevented any humanitarian aid from entering the territory at the beginning of March - accusing Hamas of commandeering it. Restricted assistance is now allowed in, although aid agencies still say it is insufficient.

By the start of April every bakery supported by the UN in Gaza had been closed, the majority of fresh produce were in extremely short supply and medical facilities were rationing medications and antibiotics.

The humanitarian organization ActionAid warned that a "renewed period of hunger and dehydration" loomed.

Israel’s defence minister announced on 16 April that Israel would set up protected areas in Gaza to create a protective barrier to protect Israeli communities following the conclusion of hostilities - Hamas has insisted that Israeli forces must withdraw from Gaza under any permanent ceasefire.

At the time almost 70% of Gaza was affected by Israeli restrictions - including 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 May, Israel launched a ground offensive named Operation Gideon’s Chariots, which the Prime Minister stated would seek to secure the release of the 48 remaining hostages - 20 of whom are thought to be alive - and "finish the destruction" of the militant organization.

From that point onward the regions affected by evacuation directives and limitations have been extended to cover 82% of Gaza, as per the UN.

The initial stage of the campaign focused on objectives within Rafah, Khan Younis and northern Gaza but in August Israel announced plans to seize and control the entire city of Gaza itself - which it has called the “last stronghold” of Hamas.

The city had been the most densely populated part of the territory prior to the conflict, with 775,000 residents residing there.

Those who remained there were ordered to move south to al-Mawasi in the south west of the Strip which Israel has classified as a “humanitarian area” - despite the fact that it has persisted in conducting lethal attacks there and which the UN said was already overpopulated and unsafe.

Hundreds of thousands of residents have so far fled the city of Gaza, where a starvation was verified in August 2025 by a UN-supported agency.

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

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