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24 months of fighting have ravaged Gaza.

The Israeli bombing campaign and ground invasion have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians according to the Hamas-run health authority, almost the entire population has been forced to move, and the UN states most homes have been destroyed or severely damaged.

The offensive came in response to Hamas's unprecedented assault across the border on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were slain and 251 more were captured.

Israeli authorities claim it is attempting to dismantle the armed and administrative capacities of the Islamist group, which is dedicated to the elimination of Israel and has been in control of Gaza since 2007.

A peace plan has been put forward by American President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would halt hostilities at once. The group has consented to free all remaining hostages - alive and dead - and to hand over Gaza’s governance to independent Palestinian experts, but it has refused to agree to disarmament 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 - bordered 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 more than 2 million people.

Scale of Destruction

Over nine out of ten residences are believed 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 Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - although Israeli officials have dismissed the findings of the commission, labeling it as "distorted and false".

This graphic overview shows how Gaza has turned into uninhabitable.

Expansion of Damage

The Israeli operation first targeted northern Gaza - where it said Hamas fighters were concealed within the civilian population. Hamas denied this.

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

Ongoing Israeli airstrikes targeted Gaza City and other urban centres in the north and ordered civilians to relocate southward of the Wadi Gaza river before it initiated its land offensive at the end of October 2023.

But Israel was also launching aerial bombardments 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 the southern and central regions at the beginning of December, before launching a ground offensive 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 early 2025 an approximately 60% of structures throughout Gaza had been harmed, with Gaza City experiencing the most severe damage. More than 46,000 Palestinians had been fatally wounded, according to Gaza's health ministry.

And the destruction has persisted since Israel ended the ceasefire in March - including in Rafah in the south. The UN estimates more than 90% of the housing units in Gaza have been affected during the war.

Humanitarian Crisis

During the conflict, the militant group - which is classified as a terror group by Israel, the UK and many other countries - and additional factions affiliated with it have been engaged in intense battles against Israeli forces on the ground. They have also launched numerous projectiles into Israel, especially in the first months of the war.

But in Gaza, whole neighborhoods have been razed to the ground, medical facilities and places of worship have been destroyed and farmland where greenhouses once stood have been reduced to debris and dust by armored vehicles and machinery used for demolitions by Israeli troops.

Israel says Hamas uses civilian buildings such as medical centers for military purposes - but the group denies these claims.

Before the war, the majority of Gaza’s population lived in its primary urban centers - Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, Deir al-Balah, in the centre, and Gaza City.

Within 10 days of October 7, 2023, the Israeli military campaign had forced nearly half to leave their homes, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

And by the time the ceasefire was declared after 15 months, an estimated 1.9m people had been forcibly relocated - they remain unable to return home.

Families have moved multiple times as Israel changed the focus of its operation, initially telling people in the north to relocate southward of the Wadi Gaza waterway, which divides Gaza approximately in two, and subsequently directing people to leave a number of "safe 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

Since Israel ended the ceasefire, it has designated more and more areas of Gaza as prohibited areas - where restrictions are in place - or imposing displacement orders, meaning residents have been instructed to leave completely.

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 entire frontier.

Humanitarian organizations have to co-ordinate with the Israeli government to work within the "no-go" areas.

Israeli forces had also prevented any humanitarian aid from entering Gaza at the beginning of March - accusing Hamas of commandeering it. Restricted assistance is now permitted to enter, although aid agencies still say it is insufficient.

By the beginning of April all the UN-supported bakeries in Gaza had been closed, the majority of fresh produce were in very limited supply and hospitals were limiting distribution of medications and antibiotics.

The humanitarian organization ActionAid cautioned that a "renewed period of hunger and dehydration" loomed.

Israel’s defence minister announced on 16 April that Israel would establish protected areas in Gaza to provide a “buffer” to safeguard Israeli towns following the conclusion of hostilities - Hamas has insisted that Israeli troops must pull out from Gaza under any permanent ceasefire.

At the time almost 70% of Gaza was impacted by Israeli restrictions - encompassing 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 seek to obtain the freedom of the 48 captives still held - 20 of which are believed to be living - and "complete the defeat" of the Palestinian armed group.

Since then the regions affected by evacuation directives and limitations have been expanded to include 82 percent of the territory, according to the UN.

The initial stage of the operation concentrated on objectives within Rafah, Khan Younis and northern Gaza but in the month of August Israel revealed intentions to capture and occupy 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 living there.

Those who remained there were instructed to relocate 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 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 the city of Gaza, where a starvation was verified in August 2025 by a UN-supported agency.

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

International Response

In September 2025, several countries, {including