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24 months of fighting have devastated Gaza.

Israel’s bombing campaign and military incursion have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians according to the Hamas-run health authority, almost the entire population has been displaced, and the UN states the majority of residences have been destroyed or severely damaged.

The military operation was launched after 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 trying to destroy the military and governing capabilities of the militant organization, which is committed to Israel's destruction and has been in control of Gaza since 2007.

A ceasefire proposal has been proposed by American President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would halt hostilities at once. The group has consented to release all captives - alive and dead - and to transfer control of Gaza to independent Palestinian experts, but it has refused to agree to disarmament or to giving up any political involvement in the leadership of Gaza.

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 coast 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 estimated to be destroyed or damaged; 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 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 graphic overview shows how Gaza has become in large parts uninhabitable.

How the Destruction Spread

The Israeli operation initially focused on the northern part of Gaza - where it said militants were concealed within the civilian population. Hamas denied this.

The town in the north of Beit Hanoun, a mere 2km from the frontier, was one of the first areas hit by airstrikes. It experienced severe destruction.

Israel continued to bomb Gaza City and other urban centres in the north and instructed residents to move south of the Wadi Gaza river before it launched its ground invasion at the end of October 2023.

But Israel was also launching air strikes on the urban areas in the south which hundreds of thousands of Gazans 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.

Israeli forces escalated its bombing of the southern and central regions at the start of December, before launching a ground offensive on Khan Younis, and by the start of 2024 over 50% of Gaza's buildings had been damaged or destroyed.

By the time a ceasefire was declared in January 2025 an approximately 60% of structures throughout Gaza had been harmed, with Gaza City experiencing the most severe damage. Over 46,000 Palestinians had been killed, as per Gaza's health ministry.

And the destruction has continued since the truce was terminated by Israel in 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 Crisis

Throughout the war, Hamas - which is designated as a terror group by multiple nations including Israel and the UK - and other armed groups allied to it have been engaged in fierce combat against Israeli troops on the ground. They have also fired thousands of rockets into Israel, particularly during the initial phase of the war.

But in Gaza, whole neighborhoods have been completely demolished, hospitals and mosques have been destroyed and farmland where greenhouses once stood have been turned into sand and rubble by armored vehicles and machinery used for destruction by Israeli soldiers.

Israel says militants utilize civilian buildings such as hospitals for armed operations - but the group denies these claims.

Prior to the conflict, the majority of Gaza’s population lived in its primary urban centers - Rafah and Khan Younis in the south, Deir al-Balah city, in the centre, and Gaza City.

Within 10 days of October 7, 2023, Israel’s offensive had compelled almost 50% to abandon their residences, as per the UN's Palestinian refugee agency.

And by the time the ceasefire was declared 15 months later, an estimated 1.9m people had been internally displaced - they remain unable to return home.

Households have relocated repeatedly as Israel changed the focus of its operation, initially telling people in the north to move south of the Wadi Gaza waterway, which cuts the Strip roughly in half, and subsequently directing people to evacuate a series of "safe zones" in the south.

Airdropped leaflets by the Israeli army alerted residents to evacuate before military actions in the region. However, not all Israeli strikes are preceded by alerts.

Expansion of Restricted Zones

Since Israel ended the ceasefire, it has designated more and more areas of Gaza as no-go zones - where restrictions are in place - or making them subject to evacuation directives, meaning Gazans have been told to evacuate entirely.

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.

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

Israeli forces had also prevented any relief supplies from entering Gaza at the beginning of March - alleging that Hamas was diverting it. Restricted assistance is now permitted to enter, although aid agencies still say it is nowhere near enough.

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 limiting distribution of medications and antibiotics.

The humanitarian organization ActionAid cautioned 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 provide a “buffer” to safeguard Israeli towns following the conclusion of hostilities - Hamas has insisted that Israeli forces must withdraw from Gaza under any permanent ceasefire.

During that period almost 70% of Gaza was impacted by Israeli restrictions - encompassing most of the North Gaza and Gaza City governorates in the north and the entire Rafah governorate in the south, as reported by the UN.

And in May, Israel initiated a land operation named Operation Gideon's Chariots, which Netanyahu said 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 militant organization.

From that point onward the areas covered by displacement orders and other restrictions have been extended to cover 82% of Gaza, according to the UN.

The initial stage of the campaign concentrated on targets in Rafah, Khan Younis and northern Gaza but in August Israel revealed intentions to seize and control all of Gaza City itself - which it has referred to as 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 living there.

Those who remained there were instructed to relocate south to al-Mawasi in the south west of the Strip which Israel has classified as a “humanitarian area” - even though it has continued to carry out deadly strikes there and which the UN said was already overcrowded and unsafe.

Numerous residents have so far fled the city of Gaza, where a famine was confirmed in August 2025 by a UN-supported agency.

But hundreds of thousands more continue to stay in dire humanitarian conditions, with medical and vital services collapsing.

International Response

In September 2025, several countries, {including