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24 months of conflict have ravaged Gaza.

The Israeli bombing campaign and military incursion have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians as reported by the Hamas-run health ministry, nearly the whole populace has been forced to move, and the UN states the majority of residences have been destroyed or severely damaged.

The offensive came in response to Hamas's unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 more were captured.

Israeli authorities claim it is trying to destroy the armed and administrative capacities of the Islamist group, which is committed to Israel's destruction and has been in control of Gaza since 2007.

A peace plan has been put forward by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would end the fighting immediately. Hamas has agreed to release all captives - alive and dead - and to transfer Gaza’s governance to Palestinian technocrats, but it has refused to agree to laying down arms or to giving up any political involvement in the leadership of Gaza.

Gaza is only 41km (25 miles) long and 10km wide - about a quarter of the size of London - surrounded on three sides by closed borders with Egypt and Israel and by the Mediterranean coast to the west, where a naval blockade is enforced by Israel. It is inhabited by more than 2 million people.

Extent of Damage

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

A UN investigative commission says Israel has committed acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - although Israel has rejected the findings of the commission, describing it as "distorted and false".

This visual guide shows how Gaza has turned into uninhabitable.

Expansion of Damage

The Israeli operation first targeted the northern part of Gaza - where it said Hamas fighters were hiding among the non-combatant residents. The group refuted these allegations.

The northern town of Beit Hanoun, a mere 2km from the frontier, was one of the first areas hit by Israeli strikes. It experienced heavy damage.

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 initiated its land offensive at the conclusion 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 end of November, parts of the south of the territory lay in ruins, as did much of the north.

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

By the time a truce was announced in early 2025 an estimated 60% of buildings across the Gaza Strip had been harmed, with Gaza City experiencing the most severe damage. Over 46,000 Palestinians had been fatally wounded, according to the Gaza health authority.

And the destruction has continued since Israel ended the ceasefire in the month of March - including in Rafah in the south. The UN estimates more than 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 multiple nations including Israel and the UK - and other armed groups 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, entire districts have been razed to the ground, medical facilities and places of worship have been destroyed and farmland where greenhouses once stood have been turned into sand and rubble by heavy vehicles and tanks used for destruction by Israeli troops.

Israeli authorities state militants utilize non-military structures such as hospitals for military purposes - but Hamas denies that.

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 city, in the centre, and Gaza City.

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

And by the time the ceasefire was declared 15 months later, an approximately 1.9 million individuals had been internally displaced - they remain unable to return home.

Households have relocated repeatedly as Israeli forces shifted the emphasis of their campaign, first instructing people in the north to move south of the Wadi Gaza waterway, which cuts the Strip roughly in half, and later ordering people to evacuate a series of "evacuation zones" in the south.

Airdropped leaflets by the Israeli army warned people to evacuate before operations in the area. However, not all Israeli strikes are preceded by alerts.

Expansion of Restricted Zones

Since Israel ended the ceasefire, it has designated an increasing number of regions of Gaza as prohibited areas - where limitations are enforced - or making them subject to evacuation directives, meaning residents have been instructed to leave completely.

Initially the evacuation orders applied to two regions - 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 work within the "no-go" areas.

Israeli forces had also prevented any relief supplies from entering the territory at the start of March - alleging that Hamas was diverting it. Limited aid 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 shut down, the majority of fresh produce were in very limited supply and hospitals were rationing medications and antibiotics.

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

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

During that period 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 whole of the Rafah governorate in the south, as reported by the UN.

And in the month of May, Israel launched a land operation named Operation Gideon's Chariots, which the Prime Minister stated would aim to secure the release of the 48 captives still held - 20 of which are thought to be alive - and "finish the destruction" of the Palestinian armed group.

Since then the areas covered by displacement orders and other restrictions have been expanded to include 82 percent of the territory, as per the UN.

The initial stage of the campaign focused on objectives within northern Gaza, Khan Younis, and Rafah but in the month of August Israel announced plans 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 densely populated part of the territory prior to the conflict, with 775,000 people residing there.

Those who remained there were ordered to move south to al-Mawasi in the southwestern part of the Strip which Israel has designated as a “humanitarian area” - even though it has continued to carry out deadly strikes there and which the UN said was already overpopulated and unsafe.

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

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

International Response

In September 2025, multiple nations, {including