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24 months 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 authority, almost the entire population has been displaced, and the UN says most homes have been damaged or destroyed.

The offensive was launched after Hamas's unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which approximately 1,200 individuals 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 dedicated to Israel's destruction and has been governing Gaza since 2007.

A ceasefire proposal has been proposed by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would halt hostilities at once. Hamas has agreed to release all captives - alive and dead - and to hand over control of Gaza to Palestinian technocrats, but it has refused to agree to disarmament or to giving up any political involvement 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 inhabited by more than 2 million people.

Scale of Destruction

Over nine out of ten residences 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 United Nations commission of inquiry says Israeli forces have perpetrated acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - although Israel has rejected the findings of the commission, labeling it as "inaccurate and misleading".

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

Expansion of Damage

The Israeli operation first targeted the northern part of Gaza - where it said militants were hiding among the non-combatant residents. The group refuted these allegations.

The town in the north of Beit Hanoun, a mere 2km from the border, was among the initial locations hit by airstrikes. It experienced severe destruction.

Ongoing Israeli airstrikes targeted Gaza City and other urban centres in the north and ordered civilians to relocate southward of the Wadi Gaza river before it initiated its land offensive at the conclusion of October 2023.

But Israel was also launching aerial bombardments on the southern cities which numerous Gaza residents from the north were escaping to. By the close of November, parts of the south of the territory lay in ruins, as did a large portion of the north.

Israel intensified 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 truce was announced in January 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 killed, as per the Gaza health authority.

And the devastation 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 damaged during the war.

Humanitarian Catastrophe

Throughout the war, the militant group - which is designated as a terror group by Israel, the UK and many other countries - and other armed groups affiliated with it have been involved in intense battles against Israeli forces on the ground. They have also fired thousands of rockets into Israel, especially in the first months of the war.

But in Gaza, entire districts have been completely demolished, hospitals and mosques have been obliterated and farmland where greenhouses once stood have been reduced to debris and dust by heavy vehicles and tanks used for demolitions by Israeli soldiers.

Israel says Hamas uses civilian buildings such as medical centers for armed operations - but Hamas denies that.

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

Within 10 days of October 7, 2023, the Israeli military campaign had forced nearly half to leave their homes, according to the UN's Palestinian refugee agency.

And by the time the ceasefire was declared after 15 months, an approximately 1.9 million individuals had been internally displaced - they remain unable to return home.

Households have relocated 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 later ordering people to evacuate a series of "evacuation zones" in the south.

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

Restricted Areas Grow

Since Israel ended the ceasefire, it has designated an increasing number of regions of Gaza as prohibited areas - where restrictions are in place - or imposing evacuation directives, meaning residents have been instructed to leave completely.

At first the orders to evacuate covered 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 coordinate with the Israeli government to operate in 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. Restricted assistance is now allowed in, 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 shut down, the majority of fresh produce were in very limited supply and medical facilities were rationing painkillers and antibiotics.

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

Israel’s defence minister declared on 16 April that Israel would establish protected areas in Gaza to provide a “buffer” 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 nearly 70% of Gaza was impacted by Israeli restrictions - encompassing the majority of North Gaza and Gaza City governorates in the north and the whole of the Rafah governorate in the south, as reported by the UN.

And in May, Israel launched a ground offensive named Operation Gideon's Chariots, which Netanyahu said would seek to obtain the freedom of the 48 remaining hostages - 20 of which are thought to be alive - and "finish the destruction" of the militant organization.

Since then the regions affected by evacuation directives and limitations have been expanded to include 82 percent of the territory, as per the UN.

The first phase of the operation focused on targets in 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 before the war, with 775,000 residents residing there.

Individuals who stayed behind were instructed to relocate south to al-Mawasi in the southwestern part of the Strip which Israel has designated as a “humanitarian area” - despite the fact that it has persisted in conducting deadly strikes there and which the UN said was already overpopulated and unsafe.

Numerous residents have thus far evacuated the city of Gaza, where a starvation was verified in August 2025 by a UN-supported agency.

But many more thousands continue to stay in severe living conditions, with health and other essential services failing.

International Response

In September 2025, multiple nations, {including