Two years of conflict have devastated Gaza.
The Israeli bombing campaign and ground invasion have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians as reported by the Hamas-run health authority, nearly the whole populace 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 cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which approximately 1,200 individuals were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
Israeli authorities claim it is trying to destroy the armed and administrative capacities of the militant organization, which is committed to Israel's destruction and has been in control of Gaza since 2007.
A ceasefire proposal has been proposed by American President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would halt hostilities at once. Hamas has agreed to free all remaining hostages - alive and dead - and to hand over control of Gaza to Palestinian technocrats, but it has refused to agree to laying down arms 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 - surrounded on three sides by closed borders with Israel and Egypt and by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, where a naval blockade is enforced by Israel. It is home to over two million residents.
Extent of Damage
Over nine out of ten residences are believed to be destroyed or damaged; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have broken down; and UN-backed experts say there is famine in Gaza City.
A UN investigative commission says Israeli forces have perpetrated 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 become in large parts uninhabitable.
Expansion of Damage
Israel's campaign first targeted the northern part of Gaza - where it claimed Hamas fighters were concealed within the non-combatant residents. Hamas denied this.
The town in the north of Beit Hanoun, only 2km (1.2 miles) from the frontier, was among the initial locations struck by airstrikes. It sustained heavy damage.
Israel continued to bomb 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.
But Israel was also launching air strikes 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 a large portion of the north.
Israeli forces escalated its bombing of southern and central Gaza 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 damaged, with Gaza City suffering the heaviest destruction. Over 46,000 Palestinians had been killed, as per Gaza's health ministry.
And the destruction has continued since the truce was terminated by Israel in the month of March - encompassing 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 designated as a terrorist organisation by multiple nations including Israel and the UK - and other armed groups allied to it have been involved in fierce combat against Israeli forces 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 completely demolished, medical facilities and places of worship have been destroyed and farmland where greenhouses once stood have been turned into sand and rubble by armored vehicles and machinery used for demolitions by Israeli troops.
Israel says militants utilize non-military structures such as hospitals 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 - Rafah and Khan Younis in the south, Deir al-Balah, in the centre, and Gaza City.
Within 10 days of 7 October 2023, the Israeli military campaign had forced nearly half to leave their homes, as per the UN's Palestinian refugee agency.
And by the time the ceasefire was declared after 15 months, an estimated 1.9m people had been forcibly relocated - they continue to be unable to go back.
Households have relocated repeatedly as Israeli forces shifted the focus of its operation, initially telling people in the north to move south of the Wadi Gaza waterway, which cuts the Strip roughly in half, and later ordering people to leave a number of "evacuation zones" in the south.
Leaflet drops by the Israeli army warned people to evacuate before operations in the area. However, not all Israeli strikes are preceded by warnings.
Expansion of Restricted Zones
Since Israel ended the ceasefire, it has designated an increasing number of regions of Gaza as prohibited areas - where restrictions are in place - or making them subject to displacement orders, meaning Gazans have been told to evacuate entirely.
At first the evacuation orders covered 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 coordinate with the Israeli authorities to operate in the "no-go" areas.
Israel had also blocked any humanitarian aid from entering Gaza at the start of March - alleging that Hamas was diverting it. Restricted assistance is now permitted to enter, although relief groups still say it is insufficient.
By the beginning of April every bakery supported by the UN in Gaza had been shut down, most fresh vegetables were in extremely short supply and hospitals were rationing painkillers and antibiotics.
The humanitarian organization ActionAid warned that a "renewed period of hunger and dehydration" was imminent.
Israel’s defence minister declared on 16 April that Israel would set up security zones in Gaza to provide a “buffer” to protect Israeli communities 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, as reported by the UN.
And in May, Israel launched a land operation named Operation Gideon's Chariots, which the Prime Minister stated would seek to obtain the freedom of the 48 remaining hostages - 20 of which are thought to be alive - and "finish the destruction" of the Palestinian armed group.
From that point onward the areas covered by displacement orders and other restrictions have been extended to cover 82% of Gaza, according to the UN.
The initial stage of the campaign concentrated on objectives within Rafah, Khan Younis and northern Gaza but in 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 instructed to relocate south to al-Mawasi in the south west of the Strip which Israel has classified as a “humanitarian area” - even though 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 thus far evacuated 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 medical and vital services collapsing.
International Response
In September 2025, several countries, {including
