🔗 Share this article

Two years of fighting have devastated Gaza.

The Israeli aerial assaults and military incursion have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians according to the Hamas-controlled health authority, almost the entire population has been displaced, and the UN states most homes have been destroyed or severely damaged.

The military operation came in response to 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 armed and administrative capacities of the militant organization, which is committed to Israel's destruction and has been in control of Gaza since 2007.

A peace plan has been put forward by American President Donald Trump and Israel’s 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 control of Gaza to independent Palestinian experts, but it has not committed to disarmament or to giving up any future political role in the leadership of Gaza.

Gaza is only 41km (25 miles) long and 10km wide - 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 more than 2 million people.

Extent of Damage

More than 90% of homes are believed to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and experts supported by the UN say there is starvation in Gaza City.

A UN investigative commission says Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - even though Israeli officials have dismissed the commission’s report, labeling it as "inaccurate and misleading".

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

Expansion of Damage

The Israeli operation initially focused on the northern part of Gaza - where it said Hamas fighters were hiding among the non-combatant residents. The group refuted these allegations.

The northern town of Beit Hanoun, a mere 2km from the border, was among the initial locations struck by airstrikes. It sustained heavy damage.

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 end of October 2023.

Simultaneously, Israel conducted aerial bombardments on the urban areas in the south which hundreds of thousands of Gazans from the north were escaping to. 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 bombing of the southern and central regions at the beginning of December, before launching a ground offensive on Khan Younis, and by January 2024 more than half of structures in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed.

By the time a ceasefire was declared in early 2025 an approximately 60% of buildings across the Gaza Strip had been harmed, with Gaza City experiencing the most severe damage. Over 46,000 Palestinians had been fatally wounded, according to Gaza's health ministry.

And the devastation has persisted since the truce was terminated by Israel in the month of March - encompassing Rafah in the south. The UN calculates over 90% of the residential buildings in Gaza have been damaged during the war.

Humanitarian Crisis

During the conflict, the militant group - which is classified as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK and many other countries - and other armed groups allied to it have been involved in fierce combat against Israeli troops on the ground. They have also launched numerous projectiles into Israel, especially in the first months of the war.

However, within Gaza, whole neighborhoods have been completely demolished, medical facilities and places of worship have been destroyed and farmland where greenhouses once stood have been reduced to sand and rubble by armored vehicles and machinery used for destruction by Israeli soldiers.

Israeli authorities state Hamas uses non-military structures such as hospitals for armed operations - but Hamas denies that.

Prior to the conflict, most of Gaza's 2.1 million people lived in its four main cities - Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, Deir al-Balah, in the centre, and Gaza City.

In just 10 days of October 7, 2023, the Israeli military campaign had compelled almost 50% to abandon their residences, as per the UN's Palestinian refugee agency.

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

Households have relocated multiple times as Israel changed the focus of its operation, first instructing people in the north to move south of the Wadi Gaza waterway, which cuts the Strip roughly in half, and later ordering people to leave a number of "safe zones" in the south.

Airdropped leaflets by the Israeli military warned people to leave ahead of military actions in the region. However, not every Israeli attack are preceded by warnings.

Expansion of Restricted Zones

After the truce was terminated, it has designated an increasing number of regions of Gaza as no-go zones - where restrictions are in place - or imposing displacement orders, meaning Gazans have been told to leave completely.

At first 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.

Humanitarian organizations have to coordinate with the Israeli government to operate in the "no-go" areas.

Israel had also blocked any humanitarian aid from entering the territory at the start of March - alleging that Hamas was commandeering it. Limited aid is now permitted to enter, although aid agencies still say it is insufficient.

By the start of April every bakery supported by the UN in Gaza had been shut down, most fresh vegetables were in very limited supply and medical facilities were rationing medications and antibiotics.

The NGO ActionAid cautioned that a "new cycle of starvation and thirst" loomed.

The Israeli Defense Minister announced on April 16 that Israel would establish security zones in Gaza to create a protective barrier to protect Israeli communities even after the war ended - Hamas has insisted that Israeli forces must withdraw from Gaza under any lasting truce.

During that period almost 70% of Gaza was affected by Israeli restrictions - encompassing most of the North Gaza and Gaza City governorates in the north and the entire 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 aim to obtain the freedom of the 48 remaining hostages - 20 of which are thought to be alive - and "complete the defeat" of the militant organization.

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

The first phase of the campaign focused on targets in northern Gaza, Khan Younis, and Rafah but in August Israel revealed intentions to capture and occupy all of Gaza City itself - which it has called 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 south west of the Strip which Israel has classified as a “humanitarian area” - even though it has persisted in conducting lethal attacks there and which the UN said was already overcrowded and dangerous.

Numerous residents have thus far evacuated Gaza City, where a famine was confirmed in August 2025 by a UN-backed body.

But hundreds of thousands more continue to stay in dire humanitarian conditions, with health and other essential services collapsing.

Global Reactions

In September 2025, several countries, {including