Gaza Strip War in Visualizations Following 24 Months of Fighting

24 months of fighting have devastated Gaza.

The Israeli aerial assaults and ground invasion have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry, almost the whole populace has been displaced, and the UN says most homes have been destroyed or severely damaged.

The military operation was launched after Hamas’ 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 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 halt hostilities at once. The group has consented to free all remaining hostages - 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 the leadership of Gaza.

Gaza is only 41km (25 miles) long and 10km wide - about a quarter of the size 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 more than 2 million people.

Scale of Destruction

More than 90% of homes are believed to be damaged or destroyed; the medical, water, and sanitation infrastructure have collapsed; and UN-backed experts say there is famine in Gaza City.

A United Nations commission of inquiry says Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - although Israeli officials have dismissed the commission’s report, labeling it as "inaccurate and misleading".

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

How the Destruction Spread

The Israeli operation first targeted the northern part of Gaza - where it claimed 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 frontier, was among the initial locations struck by airstrikes. It sustained heavy damage.

Ongoing Israeli airstrikes targeted Gaza City and additional cities in the north and ordered civilians to relocate southward of the Wadi Gaza river before it launched its ground invasion 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 fleeing towards. By the end of November, parts of the south of the territory lay in ruins, as did much of the north.

Israeli forces escalated its airstrikes on the southern and central regions 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 early 2025 an approximately 60% of buildings across the Gaza Strip had been harmed, with Gaza City experiencing the most severe damage. More than 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 damaged during the war.

Humanitarian Crisis

Throughout the war, Hamas - which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK and many other countries - and additional factions affiliated with it have been involved in intense battles against Israeli troops on the ground. They have also fired thousands of rockets into Israel, particularly during the initial phase of the war.

But in Gaza, whole neighborhoods have been razed to the ground, hospitals and mosques have been obliterated and agricultural land where greenhouses once stood have been turned into debris and dust by armored vehicles and machinery used for demolitions by Israeli troops.

Israel says militants utilize civilian buildings such as hospitals for armed operations - but Hamas denies that.

Before the war, the majority of Gaza’s population lived in its four main cities - Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, Deir al-Balah, in the centre, and the city of Gaza.

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

And by the time the truce was implemented 15 months later, an estimated 1.9m people had been forcibly relocated - they continue to be unable to go back.

Families have moved repeatedly as Israel changed the focus of its operation, first instructing people in the north to move south of the Wadi Gaza waterway, which cuts the Strip roughly in half, and subsequently directing people to leave a number of "safe zones" in the south.

Leaflet drops by the Israeli military warned people to leave ahead of 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 an increasing number of regions of Gaza as no-go zones - where limitations are enforced - or making them subject to evacuation directives, meaning residents have been instructed to leave completely.

Initially 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 co-ordinate 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 beginning of March - alleging that Hamas was diverting it. Restricted assistance 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 closed, the majority of fresh produce were in very limited supply and hospitals were limiting distribution of medications and antibiotics.

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

The Israeli Defense Minister announced on April 16 that Israel would establish security zones in Gaza to create a protective barrier to protect Israeli communities following the conclusion of hostilities - 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 - encompassing 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 May, Israel launched a ground offensive named Operation Gideon’s Chariots, which Netanyahu said would seek to obtain the freedom of the 48 captives still held - 20 of whom are believed to be living - and "complete the defeat" of the militant organization.

From that point onward the regions affected by displacement orders and other restrictions have been extended to cover 82% of Gaza, according to the UN.

The initial stage of the operation concentrated on targets in Rafah, Khan Younis and northern Gaza but in August Israel revealed intentions to seize and control the entire city of Gaza 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 residents living there.

Individuals who stayed behind were ordered to move 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 persisted in conducting lethal attacks there and which the UN said was already overpopulated and unsafe.

Numerous residents have thus far evacuated the city of Gaza, where a starvation was verified in August 2025 by a UN-backed body.

But hundreds of thousands more continue to stay in dire humanitarian conditions, with medical and vital services collapsing.

International Response

In September 2025, multiple nations, {including