Two years on, Gaza stands as a ghost city of rubble and ruin

What began as a campaign to destroy the Palestinian militant group has evolved into one of the deadliest and most destructive wars in recent history, leaving Gaza’s cities flattened and its people displaced and starving.

According to Gaza health authorities, more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, nearly a third of them children. 

Israel insists its campaign targets Hamas, not civilians, and says at least 20,000 of the dead were militants. But a United Nations commission of inquiry last month concluded that Israel’s actions amount to genocide, citing the scale of death and devastation. Israel dismissed the finding as “biased and scandalous.”

Israel, too, has paid a heavy price. At least 1,665 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed since October 2023, including 1,200 in the Hamas-led assault that triggered the war. The military says 466 soldiers have died in combat and nearly 3,000 have been wounded. 

The U.N. Satellite Centre estimates that around 193,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed, including more than a thousand schools and over two hundred hospitals. Only 14 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functional, leaving the wounded and sick with nowhere to go. The U.N. human rights office has warned that efforts to clear Gaza City could amount to ethnic cleansing.

Displacement is near total. Only 18% of Gaza is now considered safe or outside militarised zones, and many families have fled multiple times. Since Israel renewed its campaign in Gaza City in August, more than 417,000 people have been displaced from the north to the south, where overcrowded shelters and collapsing services offer little relief. 

Famine has already taken hold. A global hunger monitor reported in August that nearly a quarter of Gaza’s population — around half a million people — face starvation. At least 177 have died from hunger or malnutrition, including dozens of children. 

Despite the partial lifting of an 11-week blockade, aid remains scarce. The U.N. says over 2,300 people have been killed while trying to access food, underscoring the desperation that defines life in Gaza, now a land of ruins where survival itself has become a daily act of resistance.