Gaza war in maps

Stylized map showing the outline of Gaza using a black and white photo of war-torn buildings and rubble, with a lone figure standing amid the destruction. The left background, where the Mediterranean Sea is, features faint blue outlines of damaged buildings, while Egypt and Israel to the right are shown as a detailed purple-toned map

Two years of fighting have devastated Gaza.

Israel’s bombing campaign and ground invasion have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians according to the Hamas-run health ministry, nearly the entire population has been forced to move, and the UN says most homes have been damaged or destroyed.

The offensive came in response to Hamas's unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Israel says it is trying to destroy the military and governing capabilities of the Islamist group, which is committed to Israel's destruction 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 - alive and dead - and to hand over Gaza’s governance to Palestinian technocrats, but it has not committed to disarmament or to giving up any future political role 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 Israel imposes a blockade. It is home to more than 2 million people.

Simple locator map showing Israel in relation to the UK and the rest of Europe and north Africa. An inset of Israel shows Gaza highlighted in the south west.

More than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems 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 Israel has rejected the commission’s report, describing it as "distorted and false".

This visual guide shows how Gaza has become in large parts uninhabitable.

How the destruction spread

Israel's campaign initially focused on northern Gaza - where it said Hamas fighters were hiding among the civilian population. Hamas denied this.

Map of Gaza dated 12 October 2023 showing damaged areas in red. It highlights a large patch of red as Beit Hanoun near the border with Israel in the north. Smaller red patches can be seen across Gaza City and northern Gaza with smaller specks in the south.

The northern town of Beit Hanoun, only 2km (1.2 miles) from the border, was one of the first areas hit by Israeli strikes. It sustained heavy damage.

Map dated 29 October 2023 shows the red damaged areas have spread to cover most of Gaza City and northern Gaza. They are also spreading in the south. The Wadi Gaza river to the south of Gaza City is shown cutting across the territory.

Israel continued to bomb Gaza City and other urban centres in the north and ordered civilians 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 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.

Map dated 29 January 2024 highlights Khan Younis in southern Gaza which is now noticeably covered by red indicating damage. Gaza City and central Gaza are also more badly damaged.

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 more than half of Gaza's buildings had been damaged or destroyed.

Map dated 11 January 2025 highlights Gaza City which is now almost completely red.

By the time a ceasefire was declared in January 2025 an estimated 60% of buildings across the Gaza Strip had been damaged, with Gaza City suffering the heaviest destruction. More than 46,000 Palestinians had been killed, according to Gaza's health ministry.

Map dated 2 October 2025 highlights an area of Rafah in the south where the damage has worsened.

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

Throughout the war, Hamas - which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK and many other countries - and other armed groups allied to it have been engaged in intense battles against Israeli forces on the ground. They have also fired thousands of rockets into Israel, especially in the first months of the war.

But in Gaza, entire districts have been razed to the ground, hospitals and mosques have been destroyed and agricultural land where greenhouses once stood have been reduced to sand and rubble by heavy vehicles and tanks used for demolitions by Israeli troops.

Israel says Hamas uses civilian buildings such as hospitals for military purposes - but Hamas denies that.

Comparative satellite map of Gaza Strip showing changes from June 2023 to September 2025. Highlights include destruction of agricultural land, markets, and residential areas; displacement of people; closure of the Rafah border crossing; and transformation of areas into makeshift camps. Includes annotated photos depicting war damage and humanitarian impact

Before the war, 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, Israel’s offensive had forced nearly half to leave their homes, according to the UN's Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa).

An infographic representing the total population of Gaza with grey figures and showing the proportion that has been displaced by selected dates in purple. On 8 October 2023 123,538 people had been displaced, by 12 October that had risen to 423,378. It notes that Israel ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza on 13 October and three days later 1,000,000 people had been displaced.

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

The infographic is now dated 14 January 2024 and shows 1,900,000 have been displaced - it notes this is 90% of Gaza's population.

Families have moved multiple times as Israel changed the focus of its operation, initially telling 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 "evacuation zones" in the south.

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Leaflet drops by the Israeli army warned people to leave ahead of operations in the area. However, not all Israeli strikes are preceded by warnings.

Displaced Palestinians move with their belongings southwards on a road in the Nuseirat refugee camp area in the central Gaza Strip following renewed Israeli evacuation orders for Gaza City on 16 September, 2025. Individuals walk alongside heavily loaded vehicles. The left side shows a beach, while the right side reveals damaged buildings and debris.
Getty Images
Thousands of Palestinians have been displaced again after Israel issued new evacuation orders for Gaza City in August

Restricted areas grow

Map of Gaza Strip dated 18 March 2025, showing areas under restriction and evacuation orders. Cities marked include North Gaza, Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis, and Rafah. Purple indicates areas covered by restrictions or orders to evacuate along the border with Israel and Egypt.

Since Israel ended the ceasefire, it has designated more and more areas of Gaza as no-go zones - where restrictions are in place - or making them subject to displacement orders, meaning Gazans have been told to leave completely.

Initially the orders to evacuate 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 authorities to operate in the "no-go" areas.

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

The same map is repeated.

By the start of April all the UN-supported bakeries in Gaza had been closed, most fresh vegetables were in very limited supply and hospitals were rationing painkillers and antibiotics.

The NGO ActionAid warned that a "new cycle of starvation and thirst" loomed.

Israel’s defence minister announced 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 - Hamas has insisted that Israeli forces must withdraw from Gaza under any permanent ceasefire.

At the time almost 70% of Gaza was affected 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, according to the UN.

Map of Gaza Strip dated 15 April 2025, showing areas under restriction and evacuation orders in purple. The labels highlight the governorates of North Gaza, Gaza City in the north which are almost totally covered by the orders and Rafah in the south which is completely covered.

And in May, Israel launched a ground offensive named Operation Gideon's Chariots, which Netanyahu said would aim to secure the release of the 48 remaining hostages - 20 of whom are thought to be alive - and "complete the defeat" of the Palestinian armed group.

Since then the areas covered by displacement orders and other restrictions have been extended to cover 82% of Gaza, 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 densely populated part of the territory before the war, with 775,000 people living there.

Map of Gaza Strip dated 1 October 2025, showing areas under restriction and evacuation orders in purple. The whole of North Gaza and Gaza City governorates are covered, as are almost all of Rafah and the west of the Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah. Al-Mawasi in the south-east of Gaza is highlighted in the thin strip not covered by Israeli restrictions.

Those who remained there were ordered to move south to al-Mawasi in the south west of the Strip which Israel has designated 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 so far fled Gaza City, where a famine was confirmed in August 2025 by a UN-backed body.

But hundreds of thousands more remain there in dire humanitarian conditions, with health and other essential services collapsing.

In September 2025, several countries, including the UK and France, formally recognised a Palestinian state at the UN in an attempt to put pressure on Israel to end the conflict - a move Israel described as a “reward for terrorism”.

About 75% of the UN’s 193 members states now formally recognise Palestine, including four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

It leaves the US - Israel’s strongest ally - in a minority of one, but under Donald Trump its foreign policy has leaned heavily in favour of Israel.

And the US president has warned that, if Hamas does not agree to the 20-point peace plan outlined in September, Netanyahu will have US backing to "finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas".

Data and image sources

Damage analysis of Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite data by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregone State University. Map data from OpenStreetMap. Population displacement data from Unrwa. No-go areas and displacement zones from UN Ocha. Satellite images from Planet Labs PLC, other images from Getty and Reuters.