24 months of conflict have devastated Gaza.
Israel’s bombing campaign and ground invasion have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians according to the Hamas-run health authority, nearly the whole populace has been displaced, 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 approximately 1,200 individuals were slain and 251 more were captured.
Israel says it is trying to destroy the military and governing capabilities of the militant organization, which is dedicated to Israel's destruction and has been in control of Gaza since 2007.
A ceasefire proposal has been put forward by US 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 transfer control of Gaza to Palestinian technocrats, but it has refused to agree to disarmament or to relinquishing any political involvement 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 closed borders with Israel and Egypt and by the Mediterranean coast to the west, where a naval blockade is enforced by Israel. It is home to over two million residents.
Over nine out of ten residences are estimated to be destroyed or damaged; 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 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 visual guide shows how Gaza has become in large parts uninhabitable.
The Israeli operation first targeted northern Gaza - where it said militants were hiding among the civilian population. Hamas denied this.
The town in the north of Beit Hanoun, a mere 2km from the border, was among the initial locations hit by Israeli strikes. It sustained severe destruction.
Ongoing Israeli airstrikes targeted Gaza City and other urban centres 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 aerial bombardments on the urban areas in the south which hundreds of thousands of Gazans 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.
Israel intensified its bombing of southern and central Gaza at the start of December, before launching a ground offensive on Khan Younis, and by January 2024 over 50% of structures in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed.
By the time a truce was announced in early 2025 an estimated 60% of structures throughout Gaza had been damaged, with Gaza City suffering the heaviest destruction. More than 46,000 Palestinians had been killed, as per the Gaza health authority.
And the destruction has persisted since the truce was terminated by Israel in March - encompassing Rafah in the south. The UN calculates over 90% of the housing units in Gaza have been affected during the war.
During the conflict, 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 troops on the ground. They have also fired thousands of rockets into Israel, particularly during the initial phase of the war.
However, within Gaza, whole neighborhoods have been completely demolished, medical facilities and places of worship have been obliterated and farmland where greenhouses once stood have been turned into sand and rubble by heavy vehicles and tanks used for demolitions by Israeli troops.
Israel says Hamas uses non-military structures such as medical centers for armed operations - but Hamas denies that.
Before the war, most of Gaza's 2.1 million people lived in its primary urban centers - 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, as per the UN's Palestinian refugee agency.
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.
Families have moved repeatedly as Israel changed the emphasis of their campaign, first instructing people in the north to move south of Wadi Gaza river, which cuts the Strip roughly in half, and later ordering people to leave a series of "safe zones" in the south.
Leaflet drops by the Israeli army alerted residents to evacuate before operations in the area. However, not every Israeli attack are preceded by alerts.
After the truce was terminated, it has designated an increasing number of regions of Gaza as prohibited areas - where limitations are enforced - or making them subject to displacement orders, meaning Gazans have been told to leave completely.
Initially the evacuation orders 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 coordinate with the Israeli authorities to work within the "no-go" areas.
Israeli forces had also prevented any relief supplies from entering Gaza at the start of March - accusing Hamas of diverting it. Restricted assistance is now permitted to enter, although relief groups still say it is nowhere near enough.
By the beginning of April every bakery supported by the UN in Gaza had been shut down, the majority of fresh produce were in very limited supply and medical facilities were limiting distribution of medications and antibiotics.
The NGO ActionAid cautioned that a "new cycle of starvation and thirst" was imminent.
The Israeli Defense Minister announced on April 16 that Israel would establish security zones in Gaza to provide a “buffer” to protect Israeli communities following the conclusion of hostilities - the group has demanded that Israeli forces must withdraw from Gaza under any lasting truce.
During that period almost 70% of Gaza was affected by limitations imposed by Israel - encompassing most of the 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 May, Israel initiated a ground offensive named Operation Gideon's Chariots, which the Prime Minister stated would seek 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 evacuation directives and limitations have been extended to cover 82% of Gaza, according to the UN.
The initial stage of the campaign concentrated on targets in Rafah, Khan Younis and northern Gaza but in August Israel announced plans to seize and control all of Gaza City itself - which it has called the “last stronghold” of Hamas.
The city had been the most densely populated part of the territory prior to the conflict, with 775,000 residents residing there.
Individuals who stayed behind were ordered to move 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 deadly strikes there and which the UN said was already overpopulated and dangerous.
Numerous residents have thus far evacuated Gaza City, where a famine was confirmed in August 2025 by a UN-supported agency.
But many more thousands continue to stay in dire humanitarian conditions, with health and other essential services collapsing.
In September 2025, multiple nations, {including
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