Gaza Conflict in Visualizations After Two Years of Hostilities

24 months of fighting have devastated Gaza.

The Israeli aerial assaults and military incursion have resulted in over 67,000 Palestinian fatalities as reported by the Hamas-run health authority, nearly the entire population has been forced to move, and the UN states most homes have been damaged or destroyed.

The military operation was launched after Hamas's unprecedented assault across the border on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were slain and 251 more were taken hostage.

Israeli authorities claim it is trying to destroy the military and governing capabilities of the Islamist group, which is committed to Israel's destruction and has been governing Gaza since 2007.

A peace plan has been put forward by American President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would halt hostilities at once. Hamas has agreed to free all remaining hostages - alive and dead - and to transfer control of Gaza to Palestinian technocrats, but it has refused to agree to laying down arms or to giving up any political involvement in Gaza’s leadership.

Gaza is merely 41km in length and 10km in width - about a quarter of the size of London - bordered on three sides by closed borders with Egypt and Israel and by the Mediterranean coast to the west, where Israel imposes a blockade. It is inhabited by more than 2 million people.

Scale of Destruction

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

A United Nations commission of inquiry says Israeli forces have perpetrated acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - even though Israeli officials have dismissed the commission’s report, describing it as "inaccurate and misleading".

This visual guide shows how Gaza has turned into unlivable.

Expansion of Damage

The Israeli operation initially focused on northern Gaza - where it claimed militants were hiding among the non-combatant residents. Hamas denied this.

The northern town of Beit Hanoun, a mere 2km from the frontier, was among the initial locations struck by airstrikes. It experienced heavy damage.

Ongoing Israeli airstrikes targeted Gaza City and additional cities in the north and instructed residents to move south of the Wadi Gaza river before it launched its ground invasion at the end of October 2023.

But Israel was also launching air strikes on the southern cities 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.

Israel intensified its bombing of southern and central Gaza at the beginning of December, before launching a ground offensive on Khan Younis, and by the start of 2024 more than half of structures in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed.

By the time a truce was announced in January 2025 an approximately 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, as per the Gaza health authority.

And the destruction has persisted since Israel ended the ceasefire in March - including in Rafah in the south. The UN estimates over 90% of the housing units in Gaza have been damaged during the war.

Humanitarian Catastrophe

During the conflict, Hamas - 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, 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 obliterated and agricultural land where greenhouses previously existed have been turned into sand and rubble by heavy vehicles and tanks used for destruction by Israeli troops.

Israel says militants utilize non-military structures such as medical centers for military purposes - but the group denies these claims.

Prior to the conflict, the majority of Gaza’s population lived in its primary urban centers - Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, Deir al-Balah, in the centre, and Gaza City.

In just 10 days of October 7, 2023, Israel’s offensive had compelled almost 50% to abandon their residences, as per the UN's Palestinian refugee agency.

And by the time the truce was implemented after 15 months, an approximately 1.9 million individuals had been forcibly relocated - they remain unable to return home.

Families have moved multiple times as Israeli forces shifted the focus of its operation, 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 evacuate a number of "safe zones" in the south.

Airdropped leaflets by the Israeli military warned people to leave ahead of military actions in the region. However, not every Israeli attack are preceded by alerts.

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 leave completely.

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 work within the "no-go" areas.

Israel had also blocked any humanitarian aid from entering Gaza at the beginning of March - accusing Hamas of commandeering it. Limited aid is now allowed in, although relief groups still say it is nowhere near enough.

By the start of April all the UN-supported bakeries in Gaza had been closed, the majority of fresh produce were in extremely short supply and hospitals were limiting distribution of medications and antibiotics.

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

Israel’s defence minister announced on 16 April that Israel would set up protected areas in Gaza to create a protective barrier 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 impacted by Israeli restrictions - 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 initiated a ground offensive named Operation Gideon’s Chariots, which the Prime Minister stated would seek to obtain the freedom of the 48 remaining hostages - 20 of whom are thought to be alive - and "complete the defeat" of the militant organization.

Since then the regions affected by evacuation directives and limitations have been extended to cover 82 percent of the territory, according to the UN.

The first phase of the operation focused on targets in Rafah, Khan Younis and northern Gaza 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 prior to the conflict, with 775,000 residents living there.

Those who remained there were instructed to relocate south to al-Mawasi in the southwestern part of the Strip which Israel has designated as a “humanitarian area” - even though it has persisted in conducting deadly strikes there and which the UN said was already overcrowded and dangerous.

Numerous residents have so far fled 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 dire humanitarian conditions, with health and other essential services collapsing.

International Response

In September 2025, several countries, {including