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Two years of fighting have ravaged Gaza.

Israel’s aerial assaults and ground invasion have resulted in over 67,000 Palestinian fatalities according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry, nearly the whole populace has been forced to move, and the UN says most homes have been destroyed or severely damaged.

The military operation came in response to Hamas's unprecedented assault across the border on 7 October 2023, in which approximately 1,200 individuals were slain and 251 more were taken hostage.

Israeli authorities claim it is attempting to dismantle the military and governing capabilities of the militant organization, which is committed to Israel's destruction and has been in control of Gaza since 2007.

A peace plan has been proposed by US President Donald Trump and Israeli 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 control of Gaza to Palestinian technocrats, but it has not committed to disarmament or to relinquishing any political involvement in Gaza’s leadership.

Gaza is only 41km (25 miles) long and 10km wide - about a quarter of the size of London - bordered on three sides by sealed frontiers with Egypt and Israel and by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, where Israel imposes a blockade. It is inhabited by over two million residents.

Extent of Damage

More than 90% of homes are estimated to be destroyed or damaged; the medical, water, and sanitation infrastructure have broken down; and UN-backed experts say there is famine in Gaza City.

A United Nations commission of inquiry says Israel has committed acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - although Israel has rejected the findings of the commission, labeling it as "distorted and false".

This visual guide shows how Gaza has turned into unlivable.

Expansion of Damage

The Israeli operation initially focused on northern Gaza - where it claimed Hamas fighters were hiding among the civilian population. Hamas denied this.

The northern town of Beit Hanoun, only 2km (1.2 miles) from the frontier, was one of the first areas struck by Israeli strikes. It experienced heavy damage.

Ongoing Israeli airstrikes targeted Gaza City and additional cities in the north and instructed residents to relocate southward 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 hundreds of thousands of Gazans from the north were fleeing towards. By the end of November, parts of the south of the territory lay in ruins, as did a large portion of the north.

Israel intensified its bombing of southern and central Gaza at the start of December, before launching a ground offensive on Khan Younis, and by the start of 2024 more than half of Gaza's buildings had been damaged or destroyed.

By the time a truce was announced in early 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 killed, according to the Gaza health authority.

And the devastation has persisted since the truce was terminated by Israel in March - including in Rafah in the south. The UN estimates more than 90% of the residential buildings in Gaza have been damaged during the war.

Humanitarian Crisis

During the conflict, the militant group - which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK and many other countries - and additional factions affiliated with it have been involved 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, entire districts have been razed to the ground, hospitals and mosques have been destroyed and farmland 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 Hamas uses non-military structures 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 primary urban centers - Rafah and Khan Younis in the south, Deir al-Balah city, in the centre, and the city of Gaza.

In just 10 days of 7 October 2023, the Israeli military campaign had compelled almost 50% to abandon their residences, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

And by the time the truce was implemented after 15 months, an estimated 1.9m people had been internally displaced - they continue to be unable to go back.

Families have moved repeatedly as Israel changed the emphasis of their campaign, first instructing people in the north to relocate southward of the Wadi Gaza waterway, which cuts the Strip roughly in half, and later ordering people to leave a series of "evacuation zones" in the south.

Airdropped leaflets by the Israeli army alerted residents to evacuate before military actions in the region. However, not all Israeli strikes are preceded by warnings.

Expansion of Restricted Zones

After the truce was terminated, it has designated more and more areas of Gaza as no-go zones - where limitations are enforced - or making them subject to evacuation directives, meaning residents have been instructed to leave completely.

Initially 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.

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 the territory at the beginning of March - accusing Hamas of diverting it. Restricted assistance is now allowed in, although relief groups still say it is nowhere near enough.

By the start of April all the UN-supported bakeries in Gaza had been closed, most fresh vegetables were in extremely short supply and medical facilities were rationing painkillers and antibiotics.

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

Israel’s defence minister declared on April 16 that Israel would set up protected areas in Gaza to create a protective barrier to protect Israeli communities following the conclusion of hostilities - Hamas has insisted that Israeli forces must withdraw from Gaza under any lasting truce.

During that period nearly 70% of Gaza was affected by Israeli restrictions - encompassing most of the 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 land operation named Operation Gideon's Chariots, which the Prime Minister stated would aim to obtain the freedom of the 48 captives still held - 20 of which are believed to be living - and "complete the defeat" of the militant organization.

From that point onward the areas covered by evacuation directives and limitations have been expanded to include 82% of Gaza, as per the UN.

The first phase of the campaign focused on objectives within northern Gaza, Khan Younis, and Rafah but in August Israel revealed intentions to capture and occupy 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 ordered to move south to al-Mawasi in the south west of the Strip which Israel has classified as a “humanitarian area” - despite the fact that it has continued to carry out deadly strikes there and which the UN said was already overcrowded and unsafe.

Hundreds of thousands of residents have so far fled Gaza City, where a famine was confirmed in August 2025 by a UN-backed body.

But hundreds of thousands more continue to stay in severe living conditions, with health and other essential services collapsing.

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