Gaza War in Maps After Two Years of Fighting

24 months of conflict have ravaged Gaza.

Israel’s bombing campaign and ground invasion 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 destroyed or severely damaged.

The military operation came in response to Hamas’ unprecedented assault across the border on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were slain 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 committed to the elimination of Israel and has been in control of Gaza since 2007.

A peace plan has been proposed by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would end the fighting immediately. Hamas has agreed to free all remaining hostages - living and deceased - and to hand over Gaza’s governance 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 merely 41km in length and 10km in width - roughly one-fourth the area of London - surrounded on three sides by sealed frontiers with Egypt and Israel and by the Mediterranean coast to the west, where a naval blockade is enforced by Israel. It is home to over two million residents.

Scale of Destruction

More than 90% of homes are estimated 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 UN investigative commission says Israeli forces have perpetrated acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza - even though Israel has rejected the commission’s report, labeling it as "inaccurate and misleading".

This visual guide shows how Gaza has turned into uninhabitable.

Expansion of Damage

The Israeli operation initially focused on northern Gaza - where it claimed militants were concealed within 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 airstrikes. It sustained heavy damage.

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 launched its ground invasion at the conclusion of October 2023.

But Israel was also launching air strikes on the southern cities 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 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 structures in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed.

By the time a ceasefire was declared in early 2025 an estimated 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, according to 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 residential buildings in Gaza have been damaged during the war.

Humanitarian Crisis

Throughout the war, the militant group - which is classified as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK and many other countries - and additional factions allied to it have been involved in fierce combat against Israeli troops on the ground. They have also launched numerous projectiles into Israel, particularly during the initial phase 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 previously existed have been reduced to sand and rubble by armored vehicles and machinery used for demolitions by Israeli troops.

Israel says Hamas uses non-military structures such as hospitals for military purposes - but the group denies these claims.

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 city, in the centre, and Gaza City.

In just 10 days of 7 October 2023, the Israeli military campaign had compelled almost 50% to leave their homes, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

And by the time the truce was implemented after 15 months, an estimated 1.9m people had been internally displaced - they remain unable to return home.

Families have moved multiple times as Israel changed the focus of its operation, first instructing people in the north to move south of the Wadi Gaza waterway, which divides Gaza approximately in two, and subsequently directing people to evacuate 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 every Israeli attack are preceded by alerts.

Expansion of Restricted Zones

Since Israel ended the ceasefire, it has designated more and more areas 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 entire frontier.

Humanitarian organizations have to co-ordinate with the Israeli authorities to work within the "no-go" areas.

Israel had also blocked any relief supplies from entering Gaza 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 insufficient.

By the beginning of April every bakery supported by the UN in Gaza had been shut down, most fresh vegetables were in very limited supply and medical facilities were limiting distribution of medications and antibiotics.

The humanitarian organization ActionAid cautioned that a "renewed period of hunger and dehydration" was imminent.

The Israeli Defense Minister announced on April 16 that Israel would set up security zones in Gaza to create a protective barrier to safeguard Israeli towns following the conclusion of hostilities - Hamas has insisted that Israeli troops must pull out from Gaza under any lasting truce.

At the time nearly 70% of Gaza was impacted 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 the month of May, Israel launched a land operation named Operation Gideon’s Chariots, which the Prime Minister stated would seek to secure the release of the 48 remaining hostages - 20 of which are believed to be living - and "finish the destruction" of the Palestinian armed group.

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

The initial stage of the campaign concentrated on targets in northern Gaza, Khan Younis, and Rafah but in the month of August Israel announced plans to capture and occupy the entire city of Gaza itself - which it has called the “last stronghold” of Hamas.

The city had been the most densely populated part of the territory before the war, with 775,000 residents residing there.

Individuals who stayed behind 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 continued to carry out lethal attacks there and which the UN said was already overcrowded and dangerous.

Numerous residents have so far fled Gaza City, 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