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24 months of fighting have ravaged Gaza.

The Israeli bombing campaign and military incursion have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians according to the Hamas-run health authority, nearly the entire population has been displaced, and the UN says the majority of residences have been destroyed or severely damaged.

The military operation came in response to Hamas’ unprecedented assault across the border on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 more were taken hostage.

Israel says it is attempting to dismantle the armed and administrative capacities of the militant organization, which is committed to the elimination of Israel and has been governing 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 - 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 future political role in the leadership of Gaza.

Gaza is merely 41km in length and 10km in width - about a quarter of the size of London - surrounded on three sides by sealed frontiers with Israel and Egypt and by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, where a naval blockade is enforced by Israel. It is home to over two million residents.

Scale of Destruction

Over nine out of ten residences are believed to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have broken down; and experts supported by the UN say there is famine in Gaza City.

A UN investigative commission says Israel has committed acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - although Israel has rejected the commission’s report, describing 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 northern Gaza - where it claimed Hamas fighters were hiding among the civilian population. The group refuted these allegations.

The town in the north of Beit Hanoun, a mere 2km from the frontier, was among the initial locations hit by airstrikes. It sustained severe destruction.

Ongoing Israeli airstrikes targeted 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.

Simultaneously, Israel conducted air strikes on the urban areas in the south which numerous Gaza residents from the north were escaping to. By the close of November, parts of the south of the territory lay in ruins, as did much of the north.

Israeli forces escalated its airstrikes on southern and central Gaza at the beginning of December, before initiating a land assault on Khan Younis, and by the start of 2024 over 50% of structures in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed.

By the time a ceasefire was declared in January 2025 an estimated 60% of structures throughout Gaza had been harmed, with Gaza City suffering the heaviest destruction. Over 46,000 Palestinians had been fatally wounded, according to the Gaza health authority.

And the devastation 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 residential buildings in Gaza have been damaged during the war.

Humanitarian Catastrophe

During the conflict, Hamas - which is classified as a terror group by Israel, the UK and many other countries - and additional factions affiliated with it have been involved in intense battles against Israeli troops on the ground. They have also launched numerous projectiles into Israel, particularly during the initial phase of the war.

But in Gaza, entire districts have been razed to the ground, hospitals and mosques have been obliterated and farmland where greenhouses once stood have been turned into debris and dust by heavy vehicles and tanks used for demolitions by Israeli soldiers.

Israel says Hamas uses non-military structures such as hospitals for military purposes - but the group denies these claims.

Before the war, most of Gaza's 2.1 million people lived in its primary urban centers - Rafah and Khan Younis in the south, Deir al-Balah, in the centre, and the city of Gaza.

Within 10 days of 7 October 2023, the Israeli military campaign had forced nearly half to leave their homes, according to 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 internally displaced - they continue to be unable to go back.

Families have moved multiple times as Israeli forces shifted the focus of its operation, first instructing people in the north to relocate southward of Wadi Gaza river, which divides Gaza approximately in two, and subsequently directing people to leave a series of "evacuation zones" in the south.

Leaflet drops by the Israeli military alerted residents to leave ahead of operations in the area. However, not every Israeli attack are preceded by warnings.

Expansion of Restricted Zones

After the truce was terminated, it has designated an increasing number of regions of Gaza as prohibited areas - where limitations are enforced - or imposing evacuation directives, meaning residents have been instructed to leave completely.

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 entire frontier.

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

Israeli forces had also prevented any humanitarian aid from entering Gaza at the start of March - alleging that Hamas was commandeering it. Restricted assistance is now allowed in, although aid agencies 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 limiting distribution of painkillers and antibiotics.

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

The Israeli Defense Minister announced on April 16 that Israel would set up protected areas in Gaza to provide a “buffer” to protect Israeli communities following the conclusion of hostilities - Hamas has insisted that Israeli troops must pull out from Gaza under any lasting truce.

At the time nearly 70% of Gaza was impacted by Israeli restrictions - encompassing most of the 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 remaining hostages - 20 of which are thought to be alive - and "complete the defeat" of the militant organization.

From that point onward 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 operation focused on objectives within Rafah, Khan Younis and northern Gaza but in August Israel announced plans to seize and control the entire city of Gaza itself - which it has referred to as the “last stronghold” of Hamas.

The city had been the most crowded 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 overpopulated and unsafe.

Hundreds of thousands of 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 failing.

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