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24 months of conflict have devastated Gaza.

The Israeli bombing campaign and ground invasion have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians as reported by the Hamas-run health authority, nearly 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 cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which approximately 1,200 individuals were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Israel says it is attempting to dismantle the military and governing capabilities of the Islamist group, which is committed to Israel's destruction and has been governing Gaza since 2007.

A peace plan has been put forward by US President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would halt hostilities at once. The group has consented to release all captives - living and deceased - and to hand over Gaza’s governance to Palestinian technocrats, but it has refused to agree to disarmament or to giving up any political involvement 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 sealed frontiers with Egypt and Israel and by the Mediterranean coast to the west, where Israel imposes a blockade. It is home to more than 2 million people.

Extent of Damage

Over nine out of ten residences are estimated to be destroyed or damaged; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and UN-backed experts say there is starvation in Gaza City.

A UN investigative commission says Israeli forces have perpetrated genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - although Israeli officials have dismissed the findings of the commission, labeling it as "distorted and false".

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

Expansion of Damage

The Israeli operation initially focused on the northern part of Gaza - where it said Hamas fighters were concealed within the non-combatant residents. Hamas denied this.

The northern town of Beit Hanoun, only 2km (1.2 miles) from the border, was among the initial locations hit by airstrikes. It sustained heavy damage.

Israel continued to bomb Gaza City and additional cities in the north and instructed residents to move south 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.

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 January 2024 over 50% of Gaza's buildings had been destroyed or damaged.

By the time a truce was announced in January 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, as per Gaza's health ministry.

And the devastation has continued since the truce was terminated by Israel in the month of March - encompassing Rafah in the south. The UN estimates more than 90% of the housing units in Gaza have been damaged during the war.

Humanitarian Catastrophe

During the conflict, the militant group - which is designated as a terror group by multiple nations including Israel and the UK - 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, particularly during the initial phase of the war.

However, within Gaza, whole neighborhoods have been completely demolished, hospitals and mosques have been obliterated and farmland where greenhouses previously existed have been turned into debris and dust by armored vehicles and machinery used for destruction by Israeli troops.

Israel says 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, the Israeli military campaign had compelled almost 50% to leave their homes, as per 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 forcibly relocated - they remain unable to return home.

Households have relocated multiple times as Israeli forces shifted the focus of its operation, initially telling people in the north to move south of Wadi Gaza river, which divides Gaza approximately in two, and subsequently directing people to evacuate a series of "evacuation zones" in the south.

Airdropped leaflets by the Israeli military warned people to evacuate before operations in the area. However, not all Israeli strikes 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 limitations are enforced - or making them subject to evacuation directives, meaning Gazans have been told to evacuate entirely.

Initially 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.

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 start of March - accusing Hamas of commandeering it. Limited aid is now allowed in, although relief groups still say it is insufficient.

By the beginning of April every bakery supported by the UN in Gaza had been closed, the majority of fresh produce were in extremely short supply and hospitals were rationing medications and antibiotics.

The NGO ActionAid warned that a "renewed period of hunger and dehydration" loomed.

Israel’s defence minister announced on April 16 that Israel would set up protected areas in Gaza to provide a “buffer” to protect Israeli communities even after the war ended - the group has demanded that Israeli forces must withdraw from Gaza under any lasting truce.

During that period almost 70% of Gaza was impacted by Israeli restrictions - including the majority of North Gaza and Gaza City governorates in the north and the whole of the Rafah governorate in the south, according to the UN.

And in the month of 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 whom are believed to be living - and "complete the defeat" of the militant organization.

From that point onward the regions affected by displacement orders and other restrictions have been extended to cover 82 percent of the territory, according to the UN.

The first phase of the operation focused on objectives within Rafah, Khan Younis and northern Gaza 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 densely populated part of the territory prior to the conflict, with 775,000 residents living there.

Those who remained there were ordered to move south to al-Mawasi in the southwestern part of the Strip which Israel has classified as a “humanitarian area” - even though it has continued to carry out lethal attacks there and which the UN said was already overpopulated and dangerous.

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 remain there in severe living conditions, with health and other essential services failing.

International Response

In September 2025, multiple nations, {including