Three years after the Israeli war in Gaza, the whole world is shocked by the horrific picture of destruction

Fresh satellite images from Google Maps provide a stark picture of the massive destruction in the besieged Gaza Strip nearly three years after the Israeli war.
Entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble, and in most places only the faint traces of major roads remain, making it almost impossible to distinguish one area of ​​Gaza from another. Agricultural lands have been scorched, while centuries-old places of worship have been damaged or completely wiped from the landscape. According to a recent assessment report by the United Nations Satellite Center (UNOSAT), the number of destroyed buildings in Gaza has increased by 9 percent since the ceasefire took effect nearly a year ago. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNRWA), about 82 percent of Gaza's buildings, or about 200,000 buildings, have suffered damage, of which nearly two-thirds have been completely destroyed. Al Jazeera compared the pre-war Gaza and the current situation with the help of recently released satellite images on Google Maps, covering areas from southern Rafah to northern Gaza. The Rafah photos are from this year, while the Northern Gaza photos are from 2025 and 2024.
Rafah, the southernmost city of Gaza, became a major refuge for Palestinians displaced from various parts of Gaza, but nearly 1 million people were forced to leave the area after Israeli military operations began in May 2024. Most of them had already been displaced multiple times. They were forced to move to Khan Yunis, north of Rafah, and Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, while UNRWA refugee centers in Rafah were also evacuated. The once densely populated Tal al-Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah has almost completely disappeared. Satellite images show mostly sand in places where houses once stood.
Al-Mawasi was once a relatively sparsely populated sandy and agricultural strip spanning the coastal region of Rafah and Khan Yunis governorates. Israel declared it a humanitarian safe zone in the early stages of the war and asked displaced Palestinians to take refuge there.
In May 2024, when Israel was preparing for a military operation in Rafah, then US President Joe Biden warned, "If they enter Rafah... I'm not supplying them with weapons."
Nevertheless, Israel continued to operate, forcing hundreds of thousands more to move to al-Mawasi. Since then, Israel has bombed the area several times. Once seen almost empty in recent satellite images, the area is now filled with tents, housing large numbers of families who have nowhere else to go. According to an October 2025 UNOSAT assessment, Khan Yunis Governorate suffered the most building damage of any Gaza governorate, 51,885. It was also considered an agricultural center, and Khan Yunis recorded the largest total area of destroyed agricultural land within the Gaza Strip. The Indonesian Istiqlal Mosque in Ma'an, Khan Yunis, was also destroyed during the war. It was reopened less than two years before the start of the war. In an October 2025 assessment by UNOSAT, the Gaza Governorate ranked second with 51,530 destroyed buildings, of which 41,663 were in Gaza City alone. The port of Gaza City was among the worst affected. The port was the center of a fishing industry that once employed about 110,000 people. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the port has been severely damaged and most of the fishing boats have been destroyed. According to the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), by July 2025, 94 percent of the agricultural land in the northern Gaza Governorate had been damaged, the highest rate in the entire Gaza Strip.
During the war, Beit Lahiya, Jabalia and other communities in northern Gaza faced repeated Israeli military operations, forced evictions and severe restrictions on humanitarian aid. The Jabalia refugee camp, the largest of Gaza's eight camps, has also been destroyed, and entire blocks can be seen reduced to rubble in satellite images.
Since the start of the Israeli war against Gaza on October 7, 2023, more than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 175,000 have been injured. The actual death toll is likely to be higher as a large number of people are still missing under the rubble. More than 1,400 people have been killed and nearly 5,000 injured since the ceasefire in October last year.