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Two years of fighting have devastated Gaza.

The Israeli aerial assaults and military incursion have resulted in over 67,000 Palestinian fatalities according to the Hamas-run health ministry, nearly the entire population has been forced to move, and the UN says the majority of residences have been damaged or destroyed.

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

Israeli authorities claim it is attempting to dismantle the military and governing capabilities of the Islamist group, which is committed to Israel's destruction and has been in control of 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. Hamas has agreed to release all captives - living and deceased - and to hand over control of Gaza to independent Palestinian experts, but it has not committed to laying down arms or to giving up any future political role in Gaza’s leadership.

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 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 believed to be damaged or destroyed; the medical, water, and sanitation infrastructure have broken down; and UN-backed experts say there is starvation in Gaza City.

A UN investigative commission says Israeli forces have perpetrated genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - even though Israeli officials have dismissed the findings of the commission, labeling it as "inaccurate and misleading".

This graphic overview shows how Gaza has become in large parts unlivable.

Expansion of Damage

Israel's campaign first targeted the northern part of Gaza - where it said militants were hiding among the non-combatant residents. The group refuted these allegations.

The town in the north of Beit Hanoun, only 2km (1.2 miles) from the border, was among the initial locations hit by airstrikes. It experienced severe destruction.

Israel continued to bomb 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 end of October 2023.

But Israel was also launching air strikes on the urban areas in the south which hundreds of thousands of Gazans from the north were fleeing towards. By the close 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 the southern and central regions at the beginning of December, before initiating a land assault on Khan Younis, and by the start of 2024 over 50% 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 suffering the heaviest destruction. Over 46,000 Palestinians had been fatally wounded, according to Gaza's health ministry.

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

Humanitarian Crisis

Throughout the war, the militant group - which is classified as a terror group by multiple nations including Israel and the UK - and other armed groups allied to it have been involved in intense battles against Israeli troops on the ground. They have also fired thousands of rockets into Israel, especially in the first months of the war.

But in Gaza, whole neighborhoods have been completely demolished, medical facilities and places of worship have been destroyed and agricultural land where greenhouses once stood have been reduced to debris and dust by heavy vehicles and tanks used for demolitions by Israeli soldiers.

Israeli authorities state Hamas uses civilian buildings 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 - Rafah and Khan Younis in the south, Deir al-Balah, in the centre, and Gaza City.

In just 10 days of 7 October 2023, the Israeli military campaign had forced nearly half to abandon their residences, as per the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

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

Households have relocated multiple times as Israel changed the emphasis of their campaign, initially telling people in the north to relocate southward of the Wadi Gaza waterway, which divides Gaza approximately in two, and later ordering people to leave a number of "safe zones" in the south.

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

Expansion of Restricted Zones

After the truce was terminated, it has designated more and more areas of Gaza as prohibited areas - where restrictions are in place - or imposing evacuation directives, meaning Gazans have been told to evacuate entirely.

At first the orders to evacuate applied to 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 coordinate with the Israeli authorities to work within the "no-go" areas.

Israel had also blocked any relief supplies from entering the territory at the start of March - alleging that Hamas was diverting it. Restricted assistance is now permitted to enter, although aid agencies still say it is nowhere near enough.

By the beginning of April every bakery supported by the UN in Gaza had been closed, most fresh vegetables were in extremely short supply and medical facilities were limiting distribution of medications 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 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 limitations imposed by Israel - including 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 ground offensive named Operation Gideon's Chariots, which Netanyahu said would aim to obtain the freedom of the 48 captives still held - 20 of whom are believed to be living - and "finish the destruction" of the militant organization.

From that point onward the regions affected 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 August Israel announced plans to capture and occupy all of Gaza City itself - which it has called the “last stronghold” of Hamas.

The city had been the most crowded part of the territory before the war, with 775,000 people residing there.

Individuals who stayed behind were instructed to relocate south to al-Mawasi in the southwestern part 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 dangerous.

Hundreds of thousands of residents have so far fled the city of Gaza, where a starvation was verified in August 2025 by a UN-supported agency.

But hundreds of thousands more remain there in dire humanitarian conditions, with health and other essential services failing.

International Response

In September 2025, multiple nations, {including