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Two years of conflict have ravaged Gaza.

The Israeli aerial assaults 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 states the majority of residences have been damaged or destroyed.

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 more were taken hostage.

Israel says it is trying to destroy the military and governing capabilities of the militant organization, 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 Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would halt hostilities at once. Hamas has agreed to release all captives - living and deceased - and to transfer Gaza’s governance to independent Palestinian experts, but it has refused to agree to laying down arms or to relinquishing any political involvement in Gaza’s leadership.

Gaza is merely 41km in length and 10km in width - about a quarter of the size of London - bordered on three sides by sealed frontiers with Israel and Egypt and by the Mediterranean coast to the west, where Israel imposes a blockade. It is home to more than 2 million people.

Scale of Destruction

More than 90% of homes are estimated to be destroyed or damaged; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and experts supported by the UN say there is famine in Gaza City.

A United Nations commission of inquiry says Israeli forces have perpetrated genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - even though Israeli officials have dismissed the findings of the commission, labeling it as "inaccurate and misleading".

This visual guide 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 non-combatant residents. The group refuted these allegations.

The northern town of Beit Hanoun, a mere 2km from the frontier, was among the initial locations hit by Israeli strikes. It sustained heavy damage.

Ongoing Israeli airstrikes targeted 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 aerial bombardments on the urban areas in the south 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.

Israeli forces escalated its bombing of the southern and central regions 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 damaged or destroyed.

By the time a truce was announced in January 2025 an approximately 60% of buildings across the Gaza Strip had been harmed, with Gaza City suffering the heaviest destruction. More than 46,000 Palestinians had been fatally wounded, as per Gaza's health ministry.

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

Humanitarian Crisis

Throughout the war, the militant group - which is classified as a terror group by Israel, the UK and many other countries - and additional factions allied to 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.

However, within Gaza, whole neighborhoods have been razed to the ground, medical facilities and places of worship have been obliterated and farmland where greenhouses once stood have been turned into sand and rubble by heavy vehicles and tanks used for destruction by Israeli soldiers.

Israeli authorities state Hamas uses non-military structures such as hospitals for military purposes - but the group denies these claims.

Prior to the conflict, the majority of Gaza’s population lived in its four main cities - Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, Deir al-Balah, in the centre, and Gaza City.

Within 10 days of 7 October 2023, Israel’s offensive had forced nearly half to leave their homes, 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 forcibly relocated - they continue to be unable to go back.

Families have moved multiple times as Israeli forces shifted the emphasis of their campaign, initially telling people in the north to move south of the Wadi Gaza waterway, which cuts the Strip roughly in half, and later ordering people to leave a number of "evacuation zones" in the south.

Leaflet drops by the Israeli army alerted residents 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 no-go zones - where restrictions are in place - or imposing displacement orders, meaning Gazans have been told to leave completely.

At first the orders to evacuate 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 co-ordinate with the Israeli government to work within the "no-go" areas.

Israeli forces had also prevented any relief supplies from entering the territory at the beginning of March - accusing Hamas of commandeering it. Limited aid 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, most fresh vegetables were in very limited supply and medical facilities were limiting distribution of painkillers and antibiotics.

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

The Israeli Defense Minister announced on 16 April that Israel would set up security zones in Gaza to provide a “buffer” to safeguard Israeli towns following the conclusion of hostilities - the group has demanded that Israeli forces must withdraw from Gaza under any lasting truce.

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, according to the UN.

And in May, Israel launched a ground offensive named Operation Gideon’s Chariots, which the Prime Minister stated would seek to secure the release of the 48 remaining hostages - 20 of whom are believed to be living - and "finish the destruction" of the militant organization.

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

The first phase of the campaign focused on targets in Rafah, Khan Younis and northern Gaza but in the month of 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 crowded part of the territory prior to the conflict, with 775,000 people residing there.

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

Numerous residents have thus far evacuated Gaza City, where a famine was confirmed in August 2025 by a UN-supported agency.

But hundreds of thousands more remain there in dire humanitarian conditions, with medical and vital services collapsing.

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