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Two years of conflict have devastated Gaza.

The Israeli bombing campaign and ground invasion have resulted in over 67,000 Palestinian fatalities according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry, nearly the whole populace has been displaced, and the UN states the majority of residences have been damaged or destroyed.

The offensive was launched after Hamas's unprecedented assault across the border on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were slain and 251 more were taken hostage.

Israeli authorities claim it is attempting to dismantle the armed and administrative capacities of the militant organization, which is committed to the elimination of Israel and has been in control of Gaza since 2007.

A peace plan has been proposed by American President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would end the fighting immediately. The group has consented to free all remaining hostages - alive and dead - and to hand over Gaza’s governance to Palestinian technocrats, but it has refused to agree to laying down arms or to relinquishing 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 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.

Scale of Destruction

More than 90% of homes are believed to be damaged or destroyed; the medical, water, and sanitation infrastructure have collapsed; and UN-backed experts say there is starvation in Gaza City.

A United Nations commission of inquiry says Israeli forces have perpetrated genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - even though 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 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 frontier, was among the initial locations hit by airstrikes. It sustained severe destruction.

Ongoing Israeli airstrikes targeted Gaza City and additional cities in the north and ordered civilians to move south of the Wadi Gaza river before it initiated its land offensive at the end of October 2023.

Simultaneously, Israel conducted air strikes on the southern cities which numerous Gaza residents from the north were fleeing towards. By the close of November, parts of the south of the territory lay in ruins, as did much of the north.

Israel intensified its airstrikes on southern and central Gaza at the start of December, before initiating a land assault on Khan Younis, and by January 2024 over 50% of structures in Gaza had been destroyed or damaged.

By the time a truce was announced in early 2025 an estimated 60% of structures throughout Gaza had been damaged, with Gaza City experiencing the most severe damage. Over 46,000 Palestinians had been killed, according to Gaza's health ministry.

And the destruction has persisted since the truce was terminated by Israel in March - including in Rafah in the south. The UN estimates more than 90% of the housing units in Gaza have been affected during the war.

Humanitarian Crisis

Throughout the war, the militant group - which is classified as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK and many other countries - and additional factions allied to it have been involved in fierce combat against Israeli forces 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 razed to the ground, medical facilities and places of worship have been destroyed and agricultural land where greenhouses previously existed have been turned into sand and rubble by armored vehicles and machinery used for destruction by Israeli soldiers.

Israeli authorities state militants utilize non-military structures such as hospitals for military purposes - but Hamas denies that.

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

In just 10 days of October 7, 2023, Israel’s offensive had forced nearly half to abandon their residences, as per the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

And by the time the ceasefire was declared after 15 months, an approximately 1.9 million individuals had been internally displaced - they continue to be unable to go back.

Families have moved repeatedly as Israel changed the focus of its operation, first instructing people in the north to relocate southward of Wadi Gaza river, 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 alerted residents to evacuate before military actions in the region. However, not every Israeli attack are preceded by alerts.

Expansion of Restricted Zones

After the truce was terminated, it has designated more and more areas of Gaza as no-go zones - where limitations are enforced - or imposing evacuation directives, meaning Gazans have been told to evacuate entirely.

Initially the evacuation orders applied to two areas - 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 authorities to work within the "no-go" areas.

Israeli forces had also prevented any relief supplies from entering the territory at the beginning of March - accusing Hamas of 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 closed, most fresh vegetables were in very limited supply and medical facilities were limiting distribution of painkillers and antibiotics.

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

Israel’s defence minister announced on April 16 that Israel would set up protected areas in Gaza to create a protective barrier to protect Israeli communities even after the war ended - Hamas has insisted that Israeli troops must pull out 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 entire Rafah governorate in the south, according to the UN.

And in May, Israel initiated 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 whom are believed to be living - and "complete the defeat" of the Palestinian armed group.

From that point onward the areas covered by displacement orders and other restrictions have been extended to cover 82 percent of the territory, as per the UN.

The first phase of the campaign focused on objectives within Rafah, Khan Younis and northern Gaza but in August Israel announced plans to capture and occupy the entire city of Gaza itself - which it has referred to as the “last stronghold” of Hamas.

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

Individuals who stayed behind 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 overcrowded and unsafe.

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

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

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