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24 months of fighting have devastated Gaza.

The Israeli aerial assaults and military incursion have resulted in over 67,000 Palestinian fatalities 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 offensive was launched after Hamas's unprecedented assault across the border on 7 October 2023, in which approximately 1,200 individuals were killed and 251 others were captured.

Israel says it is trying to destroy the military and governing capabilities of the militant organization, which is dedicated to the elimination of Israel and has been governing 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 free all remaining hostages - alive and dead - and to transfer control of Gaza to Palestinian technocrats, but it has refused to agree to laying down arms or to relinquishing any future political role in Gaza’s leadership.

Gaza is only 41km (25 miles) long and 10km wide - roughly one-fourth the area of London - surrounded on three sides by closed borders with Israel and Egypt and by the Mediterranean coast to the west, where a naval blockade is enforced by Israel. It is home to over two million residents.

Extent of Damage

Over nine out of ten residences are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the medical, water, and sanitation infrastructure have broken down; and experts supported by the UN say there is starvation in Gaza City.

A United Nations commission of inquiry says Israel has committed acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - although Israeli officials have dismissed the commission’s report, describing it as "distorted and false".

This graphic overview shows how Gaza has become in large parts uninhabitable.

How the Destruction Spread

The Israeli operation first targeted the northern part of Gaza - where it said Hamas fighters were concealed within the civilian population. Hamas denied this.

The town in the north of Beit Hanoun, a mere 2km from the border, was one of the first areas struck by airstrikes. It experienced heavy damage.

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

Simultaneously, Israel conducted air strikes 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.

Israel intensified its airstrikes on the southern and central regions at the beginning of December, before initiating a land assault on Khan Younis, and by January 2024 more than half of structures in Gaza had been destroyed or damaged.

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

And the devastation has persisted since Israel ended the ceasefire in the month of March - including in Rafah in the south. The UN estimates more than 90% of the residential buildings in Gaza have been affected during the war.

Humanitarian Catastrophe

During the conflict, Hamas - which is designated as a terror group by Israel, the UK and many other countries - and other armed groups affiliated with 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.

But in Gaza, whole neighborhoods have been completely demolished, hospitals and mosques have been destroyed and agricultural land where greenhouses once stood have been reduced to sand and rubble by armored vehicles and machinery used for demolitions by Israeli soldiers.

Israeli authorities state militants utilize non-military structures such as medical centers for armed operations - but the group denies these claims.

Before the war, the majority of Gaza’s population 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 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 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 Israeli forces shifted the focus of its operation, initially telling people in the north to relocate southward of Wadi Gaza river, which divides Gaza approximately in two, and subsequently directing people to evacuate a number of "safe zones" in the south.

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

Restricted Areas Grow

After the truce was terminated, it has designated more and more areas of Gaza as prohibited areas - where limitations are enforced - or imposing evacuation directives, meaning residents have been instructed to evacuate entirely.

At first the evacuation orders 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 work within the "no-go" areas.

Israeli forces had also prevented any humanitarian aid from entering Gaza at the beginning of March - alleging that Hamas was commandeering it. Restricted assistance is now allowed in, although relief groups 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 NGO ActionAid cautioned that a "renewed period of hunger and dehydration" was imminent.

Israel’s defence minister declared on 16 April that Israel would establish security zones in Gaza to provide a “buffer” to protect Israeli communities following the conclusion of hostilities - the group has demanded that Israeli forces must withdraw from Gaza under any lasting truce.

During that period almost 70% of Gaza was affected by Israeli restrictions - encompassing the majority of 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 ground offensive named Operation Gideon's Chariots, which Netanyahu said would aim 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 extended to cover 82% of Gaza, as per the UN.

The initial stage of the campaign concentrated on objectives within Rafah, Khan Younis and northern Gaza but in August Israel revealed intentions to seize and control 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 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 continued to carry out lethal attacks 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 hundreds of thousands more continue to stay in severe living conditions, with health and other essential services collapsing.

International Response

In September 2025, multiple nations, {including