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Two years of fighting have ravaged Gaza.

Israel’s bombing campaign and ground invasion have resulted in over 67,000 Palestinian fatalities according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry, almost the whole populace has been forced to move, 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 approximately 1,200 individuals were killed and 251 more were taken hostage.

Israel says it is attempting to dismantle the armed and administrative capacities of the Islamist group, which is dedicated to Israel's destruction and has been in control of Gaza since 2007.

A ceasefire proposal has been put forward by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would halt hostilities at once. Hamas has agreed to free all remaining hostages - alive and dead - and to transfer control of Gaza to independent Palestinian experts, 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 - 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 over two million residents.

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 UN investigative commission says Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - although Israel has rejected the commission’s report, describing it as "distorted and false".

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

Expansion of Damage

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

The northern town of Beit Hanoun, a mere 2km from the frontier, was one of the first areas 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 end of November, parts of the south of the territory lay in ruins, as did much of the north.

Israel intensified its bombing of southern and central Gaza at the beginning of December, before initiating a land assault on Khan Younis, and by January 2024 over 50% of Gaza's buildings had been destroyed or damaged.

By the time a ceasefire was declared in January 2025 an approximately 60% of structures throughout Gaza 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 continued since Israel ended the ceasefire in March - encompassing Rafah in the south. The UN calculates more than 90% of the residential buildings in Gaza have been affected during the war.

Humanitarian Catastrophe

Throughout the war, Hamas - which is classified as a terror group by multiple nations including Israel and the UK - and additional factions affiliated with it have been involved in fierce combat against Israeli forces 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 razed to the ground, medical facilities and places of worship have been destroyed and agricultural land where greenhouses previously existed have been reduced to sand and rubble by heavy vehicles and tanks used for demolitions by Israeli troops.

Israeli authorities state 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 four main cities - Rafah and Khan Younis in the south, Deir al-Balah, in the centre, and the city of Gaza.

Within 10 days of October 7, 2023, the Israeli military campaign had compelled almost 50% to leave their homes, according to the UN's Palestinian refugee agency.

And by the time the truce was implemented 15 months later, an approximately 1.9 million individuals had been forcibly relocated - 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 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.

Leaflet drops by the Israeli military alerted residents to evacuate before operations in the area. However, not all Israeli strikes are preceded by warnings.

Restricted Areas Grow

After the truce was terminated, it has designated an increasing number of regions of Gaza as prohibited areas - where limitations are enforced - or imposing displacement orders, 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 whole border.

Humanitarian organizations have to coordinate with the Israeli authorities to operate in the "no-go" areas.

Israeli forces had also prevented any relief supplies from entering the territory at the start of March - accusing Hamas of diverting it. Restricted assistance 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, the majority of fresh produce were in extremely short supply and hospitals were limiting distribution of painkillers and antibiotics.

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

Israel’s defence minister announced on April 16 that Israel would establish protected areas in Gaza to create a protective barrier to protect Israeli communities even after the war ended - Hamas has insisted that Israeli forces must withdraw from Gaza under any permanent ceasefire.

At the time nearly 70% of Gaza was impacted by limitations imposed by Israel - including 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 the month of May, Israel launched a land operation named Operation Gideon’s Chariots, which Netanyahu said would seek to obtain the freedom of the 48 remaining hostages - 20 of whom are believed to be living - and "finish the destruction" of the militant organization.

Since then the areas covered by displacement orders and other restrictions have been extended to cover 82 percent of the territory, as per the UN.

The initial stage of the campaign concentrated on objectives within Rafah, Khan Younis and northern Gaza but in August Israel announced plans to capture and occupy 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 before the war, with 775,000 residents 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” - despite the fact that it has persisted in conducting lethal attacks there and which the UN said was already overcrowded 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 medical and vital services collapsing.

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