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Gaza Strip in maps: How a year of war has drastically changed life in the territory

Find out how much has changed since Israel began its military response to Hamas's attacks.

Gaza Strip in maps: How a year of war has drastically changed life in the territory

Israel says it is trying to destroy the military and governing capabilities of the Islamist group, which is committed to the destruction of Israel and has been in control of Gaza since 2007, but the war has also had a devastating impact on the people living there.

This visual guide shows some of the drastic ways life has changed for Gazans living through war that has laid waste to the territory and killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

 

An old woman and a child try to stay warm by burning brushwood in front of a tent house, in Gaza City, in December 2022 - the woman has her head covered in a chequered shawl and is holding a large stick. The boy, with short dark hair, is lying with his head on her lap under a white and grey patterned blanket.
Getty Images

 

Life before the war was tough in Gaza - for years it had been the subject of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade severely limiting who and what could enter and leave, which both countries said was needed for security.

Nearly two-thirds of the population was in poverty, according to the World Bank, and thousands lived in UN-run refugee camps but it also had hospitals, schools and shops.

Asdaa City was one of Gaza's biggest amusement parks and offered respite and fun to the two million people - nearly half of them children - who live in the Strip, which is less than a quarter of the size of Greater London.

A Palestinian woman dressed in black wearing a headscarf laughing on a swing ride at the park in 2022 with a boy in dark shorts on the seat behind her - the ferris wheel with red, blue, yellow and green passenger cars can be seen in the background
Getty

 

Images of the park in Khan Younis captured before Israel's invasion and those taken in recent months offer a stark illustration of how a year of conflict has upended Gaza and the lives of those who live there.

 

The Ferris Wheel seen in the last image can be seen again but now there are makeshift tents in the foreground with small clusters of people dressed in dark clothing sheltering beneath.
Getty Images

 

Rides have fallen into disrepair, there's no power to operate them and thousands of tents have been erected across the site to house families forced to flee there.

 

A wider shot showing the Ferris Wheel towering over a field full of white, brown and blue tents. Trees can be seen in the distance.
Getty Images
 
 

After the 7 October attacks, in which Hamas gunmen killed more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and took 251 more back to Gaza as hostages, Israel began an intense bombing campaign focused on northern Gaza - where it said Hamas fighters were hiding among the civilian population.

 

How the destruction spread

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.

 

A map dated 12 October 2023 showing Gaza tilted about 45% so it appears horizontally, labelling the cities from south to North of Rafah, Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City. The map is white with roads and populated areas in grey. It show areas assessed as damaged in red. There are small red specks across the whole map but they are bigger around Gaza City and in particular Beit Hanoun, which is highlighted.

 

Israel continued to bomb Gaza City and other urban centres in the north and ordered civilians to move south of the Wadi Gaza river for "safety and protection" before it began its ground invasion at the end of October.

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.

 

A similar map of Gaza dated 29 November 2023 showing bigger red damaged areas across most of Gaza but the top third over Gaza City is almost completely red. The Wadi Gaza river that splits the territory in two is also highlighted

 

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

 

A similar map of Gaza dated 29 January 2024 showing that all the red areas have grown bigger and denser. The red cluster over Khan Younis is particularly noticeable and highlighted.

 

One year of conflict has probably damaged close to two thirds of buildings across the Gaza Strip, with Gaza City suffering the heaviest destruction, according to experts from CUNY Graduate Center and Oregon State University who have been analysing satellite data.

 

A similar map of Gaza dated 24 September 2024 showing even bigger red damaged areas across most of Gaza and now the southern city of Rafah is also showing as a large red area

 

Throughout the year, Hamas - which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK and many other countries - and its allies have been engaged in intense battles against Israeli forces on the ground. They have also been firing thousands of rockets into Israel.

 

Vast tent city created

Gaza - only 41km (25 miles) long and 10km wide and bounded by the Mediterranean Sea and closed borders with Israel and Egypt - is now in large parts uninhabitable.

A boy in dark trousers and a sleeveless shirt is running up a street in Gaza passed a white truck marked UN. He is surrounded by the wreckage of buildings with a badly damaged but still standing building in the background. A yellow people carrier can be seen at the other end of the road.
Getty Images

 

Entire districts have been razed to the ground. Agricultural land where greenhouses once stood have been reduced to sand and rubble by heavy vehicles and tanks used in clearing operations by Israeli troops.

Before the war, most of Gaza's 2.2 million people lived in its four main cities - Rafah and Khan Younis in the south, Deir al-Balah, in the centre, and Gaza City, which was home to 775,000 people - but almost the whole population have now been displaced.

 

A graphic showing that 90% of Gaza's 2.2 million people - it represents the population of Gaza as a grey row of people and those displaced are shown in red. It includes a timeline showing that by 12 October 2023 423,378 people were displaced and that by 30 September 2024 that number had risen to 1.9 million.

 

Families have been displaced 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 declaring a series of evacuation zones in the south.

Satellite imagery shows a vast proliferation of tents erected by displaced people in al-Mawasi, a thin strip of mainly agricultural land along the Mediterranean coast, close to the Egyptian border, that Israel designated as a so-called "humanitarian area" in January.
 
Two satellite images showing a section of Al-Mawasi humanitarian area. the first dated May 2023 the first shows a blue sea, sandy beaches and a few scattered buildings and green fields. The second dated September 2024 shows almost the whole are covered in white tents. There is an inset showing the location of the area shown in Gaza and of the wider Al-Mawasi area shaded in purple.

 

Israel expanded the zone in May, to include parts of Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah, after launching its ground offensive in Rafah, where more than a million people were sheltering.

But it has been repeatedly reduced in size since then, as Israel has targeted areas where they say Hamas is operating and launching attacks while embedded among displaced civilians.

An estimated 1.8 million people are now sheltering in al-Mawasi, which currently spans about 50 sq km (20 sq miles) and lacks critical infrastructure and basic services.

Overcrowding has become a major concern in UN emergency shelters in central and southern Gaza, with some far exceeding their capacity. Other families are living in tents or makeshift shelters in compounds or on open areas of land and beaches.

 

A man in a dirty looking grey T-shirt and trousers with dark hair and a beard standing with his arms outstretched in front of a makeshift shelter of metal strips and large sheets of dark cloth. Behind him stand a group of children.
Getty Images
 
 
 

And the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) is warning that rain and flooding during the region's approaching rainy season will only worsen the "already dire living conditions" in Gaza.

 

The struggle for food

Nearly 500,000 people are struggling with catastrophic hunger and there is a high risk of famine across the whole of Gaza, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the global body responsible for declaring famine.

Even before the current conflict, about 80% of the population of Gaza was in need of humanitarian aid.

 

A bar chart showing the average number of lorries that have entered Gaza per day each month since October 2023. It highlights that about 500 mostly commercial lorries a day were entering before October, that fell to nine a day in the first month of the war and in September it was the lowest number since then at 53. The highest number was in April when about 190 lorries entered every day. The data is provided by the UN, which says it doesn't have complete data for commercial vehicles after 7 May.

 

Aid deliveries stopped completely for about 10 days when Israel and Egypt closed their crossings after 7 October and they have resumed at much lower levels - with about 50 aid lorries currently entering Gaza each day in September, according to the UN.

Israel disputes the UN figures but even its data shows just 142 lorries a day, external entered in September, with the highest number of 226 a day entering in April.

In March, the World Food Programme said that addressing simple food needs would require at least 300 lorries a day to enter Gaza and distribute food - a figure that has not been reached since the conflict started.

 

Palestinians, including children, living in the al-Mawasi area wait to receive food distributed by aid groups in Khan Yunis. Men, women and children in drab clothing are crowding around holding out pans and tins as a ladle pours some orange coloured food into one.
Getty Images

 

 

UN officials have blamed the situation on Israeli military restrictions on aid deliveries, the ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of law and order.

Israel insists there are no limits to the amount of aid that can be delivered into and across Gaza and blames UN agencies for failing to distribute supplies. It also accuses Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies.

Aid workers have also been killed in air strikes and have reported being fired upon by Israeli soldiers. There have also been reports of crowds looting aid lorries.

The UN says that despite aid agencies providing 600,000 meals a day across Gaza, the lack of supplies meant more than 1.4 million people did not get their food rations in September.

 

Poverty is soaring

The conflict has also had a devastating impact on Gaza's economy, which the World Bank said had contracted by 86% in the first quarter of 2024, the "largest economic contraction on record".

It notes that almost 100% of the population are now living in poverty compared with 64% before the war and the cost of basic supplies has risen by almost 250%.

 

Graphic showing how much certain products have increased in cost since the start of the war it shows red icons of the various products next to the price details in bold. Onions are up 4,010% to £8.63/kg, Eggs 402% to £4.32 for six, sugar 2,598% to £17.27/kg, frozen chicken 374% to £15.11, Green beans 1,417% to £9.71/kg, bottled water 103% to 65p, nappies 630% to £38.86 for 64, and flour in south Gaza up 45% to £10.79/kg. The figures are from Christian Aid and based on currency conversions on 6 Oct 2023 and 12 March 2024

 

Many healthcare facilities have been left unable to function as a result of damage or lack of supplies and fuel.

Many hospitals have also been raided by Israeli forces, with the military alleging that they have been used for military purposes by Hamas. Hamas and hospital officials have denied that claim.

Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital - once the largest medical facility in Gaza - was left in ruins although it has now reopened its emergency department. The IDF says it killed or captured hundreds of "terrorists" and found weapons and intelligence "throughout the hospital" in its two major operations there.

 

An aerial shot of the ruins of al-Shifa hospital taken in September 2024. Most of the buildings are in ruins around a barren foreground but part of one building on the left is a bright white and a single white vehicle marked with a red crescent sits in front.
Getty Images / The UN's World Health Organization (WHO) says only 17 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are still partially functioning.

 

 

A long recovery

Aside from the human toll, the UN Environmental Programme has warned it will take a long time to repair the damage in Gaza.

It describes the water and sanitation systems as "almost entirely defunct", warns of mounting rubbish around camps and shelters and of the risk that chemicals from destroyed solar panels and the munitions being used will contaminate soil and water supplies.

And it estimates more than 40 million tonnes of debris has accumulated from the destruction.

 

A chart titled: The debris produced is 14 times the total from all Israel-Gaza conflicts since 2008. It shows red bars on an illustrated background of damaged buildings showing 600,000 tonnes of debris was produced in 2008, two million in 2014, 370,000 in 2021 and 42 million in 2024.

 

The UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) says it could take 15 years and more than $500m just to clear the debris and explosive remnants of war.

"The significant and growing environmental damage in Gaza risks locking its people into a painful, long recovery," executive director Inger Andersen said.

While Israel has turned its focus towards Lebanon in recent weeks, it is continuing operations in Gaza.

And with no sign of an end to the conflict it will be a long time before life there returns to normal.

 

Two images of the same beach. The first dated August 2022 shows people playing on the beach and in the water, with bright lights and high rise buildings. The second dated November 2023 shows the beach cleared with Israeli military vehicles and piles of sand and rubbish covering the beach. There is also an inset showing the beach is located on the coast near Gaza City.
 
 

Are you personally affected by the issues raised in this story? If it is safe to do so, please get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk, external.

Author: Editors Desk, The Visual Journalism Team

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