Key facts
- Google Maps images from June show extensive devastation in Gaza.
- Over 2.1 million displaced people are living in tents and temporary shelters.
- Approximately 82% of structures in Gaza have been damaged, with two-thirds destroyed.
- An estimated 61 million tonnes of rubble are present in Gaza.
- The conflict was triggered by a Hamas attack into Israel in October 2023.
New Google Maps imagery, captured in June, has revealed the extensive scale of destruction in Gaza, highlighting the ongoing humanitarian crisis. The images show widespread damage to homes, businesses, places of worship, and infrastructure, with tented camps lining the coast and the main port surrounded by makeshift accommodation.
Significant damage is visible in northern towns like Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, as well as the destruction of the Istiqlal mosque in Khan Younis. Major Gaza City neighborhoods, including Jabaliya and Shuja’iya, appear uninhabitable. The southern areas along the border with Egypt show large swaths of rubble, and the town of Rafah is depicted as almost entirely reduced to rubble, with Tel al-Sultan razed.
According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), over 2.1 million displaced people are living in tents and temporary shelters. Unrwa estimates that about 82% of structures in Gaza, roughly 200,000 buildings, have been damaged, with about two-thirds of those destroyed. A recent UN assessment indicated a 9% increase in destroyed structures since a ceasefire was declared in October 2025.
Jaco Cilliers, the UN Development Programme’s special representative in Palestine, stated last month that the total amount of rubble in Gaza is estimated at 61 million tonnes, approximately 20 times the amount generated in all global wars over the past 18 years. The presence of human remains under the rubble is noted as an urgent humanitarian problem.
The conflict was initiated by a surprise attack by Hamas into Israel in October 2023, which resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths, mostly civilians, and 251 hostages taken.