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24 months of fighting have ravaged Gaza.

The Israeli bombing campaign and ground invasion have resulted in over 67,000 Palestinian fatalities as reported by the Hamas-controlled health authority, almost the whole populace has been forced to move, and the UN says most homes have been damaged or destroyed.

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 others 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 governing Gaza since 2007.

A ceasefire proposal has been proposed by US President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would end the fighting immediately. 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 laying down arms or to relinquishing any future political role 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 more than 2 million people.

Extent of Damage

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

A UN investigative commission says Israeli forces have perpetrated genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - although Israeli officials have dismissed the commission’s report, describing it as "distorted and false".

This graphic overview shows how Gaza has turned into uninhabitable.

How the Destruction Spread

Israel's campaign initially focused on northern Gaza - where it said militants were concealed within the non-combatant residents. The group refuted these allegations.

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

Israel continued to bomb 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 conclusion of October 2023.

But Israel was also launching air strikes 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 a large portion of the north.

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

By the time a ceasefire was declared in January 2025 an estimated 60% of buildings across the Gaza Strip had been harmed, with Gaza City suffering the heaviest destruction. Over 46,000 Palestinians had been killed, as per Gaza's health ministry.

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

Humanitarian Crisis

During the conflict, Hamas - which is classified as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK and many other countries - and other armed groups allied to it have been engaged in fierce combat against Israeli troops on the ground. They have also launched numerous projectiles into Israel, especially in the first months of the war.

But in Gaza, entire districts have been razed to the ground, medical facilities and places of worship have been destroyed and agricultural land where greenhouses once stood have been turned into sand and rubble by armored vehicles and machinery used for demolitions by Israeli soldiers.

Israel says Hamas uses non-military structures such as medical centers for armed operations - but Hamas denies that.

Prior to the conflict, most of Gaza's 2.1 million people lived in its four main cities - Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, Deir al-Balah, in the centre, and Gaza City.

In just 10 days of 7 October 2023, Israel’s offensive had compelled almost 50% to abandon their residences, as per the UN's Palestinian refugee agency.

And by the time the truce was implemented after 15 months, an approximately 1.9 million individuals had been forcibly relocated - they remain unable to return home.

Families have moved repeatedly as Israeli forces shifted the focus of its operation, first instructing people in the north to relocate southward of Wadi Gaza river, which cuts the Strip roughly in half, and later ordering people to evacuate a series of "evacuation zones" in the south.

Leaflet drops by the Israeli army warned people to leave ahead of military actions in the region. However, not all Israeli strikes are preceded by alerts.

Expansion of Restricted Zones

After the truce was terminated, it has designated more and more areas of Gaza as prohibited areas - where limitations are enforced - or imposing displacement orders, meaning Gazans have been told to evacuate entirely.

At first the orders to evacuate applied to two areas - 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 authorities to operate in the "no-go" areas.

Israeli forces had also prevented any relief supplies from entering Gaza at the beginning of March - alleging that Hamas was diverting it. Limited aid is now allowed in, although relief groups still say it is insufficient.

By the start of April all the UN-supported bakeries in Gaza had been shut down, most fresh vegetables were in very limited supply and hospitals were rationing painkillers and antibiotics.

The NGO ActionAid warned that a "renewed period of hunger and dehydration" was imminent.

The Israeli Defense Minister declared on April 16 that Israel would establish security zones in Gaza to provide a “buffer” to safeguard Israeli towns even after the war ended - the group has demanded that Israeli troops must pull out from Gaza under any permanent ceasefire.

At the time almost 70% of Gaza was affected by limitations imposed by Israel - including 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 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 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, as per the UN.

The first phase of the operation focused on targets in northern Gaza, Khan Younis, and Rafah but in the month of August Israel announced plans to seize and control 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.

Those who remained there were instructed to relocate 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 so far fled the city of Gaza, where a starvation was verified in August 2025 by a UN-backed body.

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

International Response

In September 2025, multiple nations, {including