Two years since the Israel-Hamas war erupted, Gaza has been reduced to a graveyard of shattered homes, broken families, and starving children. What began as a conflict has turned into one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern times.

Nearly every aspect of life in the tiny, besieged territory has collapsed, from healthcare and food supplies to education and housing. The war’s impact can be measured not just in statistics but in the silence of empty classrooms, the rubble where families once lived, and the hunger that grips an entire population.

How severe is the human cost of the conflict?

Out of every 10 people in Gaza, one has been killed or injured in Israeli strikes. Nine have been displaced from their homes, and at least three have gone days without food.

Among every hundred children, four have lost one or both parents. Eight out of every 10 buildings that once stood in Gaza have been damaged or completely flattened. Nine out of every ten homes lie in wreckage. Eight out of every ten acres of cropland have been destroyed that includes more than three-quarters of all farmland.

How did the war begin?

The conflict began on 7 October 2023, when Hamas militants carried out a surprise attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza.

In response, Israeli leaders vowed to launch a massive military offensive on the Gaza Strip, aimed at annihilating Hamas and freeing the hostages. What followed has been one of the most devastating and prolonged wars in the region’s history.

What has happened since the war started?

Cemeteries are overflowing, and mass graves now mark the landscape of Gaza. Israeli airstrikes have wiped out entire families in their homes.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 2,500 people seeking food have been killed. In some cases, Israel has admitted to firing warning shots at chaotic crowds trying to collect desperately needed aid.

What is the state of health care in Gaza?

Israeli attacks on health facilities and limits on medical supplies have left doctors struggling to treat severe injuries with basic tools.

Israel says it targets hospitals because Hamas uses them as command centres, though it has provided limited evidence. Hamas security members have been seen in hospitals, with some areas kept off-limits.

Israel maintains that import restrictions are necessary to prevent Hamas from obtaining weapons.

The war has become the deadliest conflict for journalists, health workers, and UN aid staff in recorded history, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists and the UN The British Medical Journal reports that the number of explosive injuries among Gaza’s patients is comparable to data from US combat forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Experts appointed by a UN body and leading human rights organisations have accused Israel of genocide, charges that Israel strongly denies.

What do the numbers reveal?

Israel’s campaign has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians and wounded nearly 170,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. More than 40,000 of those injured have suffered life-altering wounds, as reported by the World Health Organization.

The death toll excludes thousands believed to be buried under rubble. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run administration, does not separate civilians from combatants in its count, but the figures are regarded as credible by the UN and independent experts.

Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian casualties, saying its fighters hide among residents, turning them into human shields. Still, Israeli airstrikes frequently hit homes, killing entire families without any clear indication of who the intended target was.

How have families been affected?

Palestinian families have fled across Gaza multiple times, trying to escape new waves of bombardment. Many have been displaced repeatedly, shifting between apartments and makeshift tents. Tent cities now dominate much of southern Gaza.

Families have been torn apart by detentions and deaths. Israeli troops regularly detain men, sometimes dozens or hundreds at a time, in searches for suspected Hamas members, leaving loved ones separated.

How has Gaza’s landscape changed?

Israel’s military now controls most of Gaza, pushing most Palestinians into a small area along the southern coast. The landscape itself has been transformed.

Entire neighbourhoods of Gaza City and border towns have been flattened. New roads have been carved across the territory, and military posts built.

According to the UN’s Satellite Centre, at least 102,067 buildings have been destroyed, a volume of rubble roughly 12 times the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Among the ruins lie schools, universities, clinics, mosques, greenhouses, and homes.

What about hunger and malnutrition?

Crowds gather daily around charity kitchens, fighting for a bowl of lentils. Babies are severely malnourished, weighing less than they did at birth. Gaza’s Health Ministry and the World Health Organization report that more than 400 people, including over 100 children, have died from complications of malnutrition, most of them this year.

A UN study estimates that more than 54,600 children under the age of five in Gaza are acutely malnourished, with over 12,800 suffering from severe malnutrition.

After months of warnings, the world’s leading authority on food crises declared in August that Gaza City had entered a state of famine, a finding that Israel disputes.

What has happened to Gaza’s agriculture?

The towns that once grew strawberries, watermelons, wheat, and cereals are now empty and destroyed. Between May and October 2025, Israeli bombardment and demolitions nearly erased the town of Khuzaa, a major agricultural hub known as the breadbasket of Khan Younis.

What is happening now?

As the war enters its third year, Israel has launched a new offensive aimed at taking control of Gaza City and killing Hamas fighters said to be hiding there.

Israel also says it intends to rescue the 48 hostages who remain in Gaza, about 20 of whom are believed to be alive. Since the conflict began, 465 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza.

A new American peace plan has been put forward, even as Israeli tanks and ground forces continue to press deeper into Gaza City.