Gaza, formerly a bustling sea oasis, has been almost beyond recognition, destroyed after 15 months of continuous war. The region itself, with approximately 2.2 million inhabitants, is now a desolate reminder of destruction, displacement, and acute humanitarian crisis. There are whole neighborhoods in ruins, extensive infrastructure destroyed, and almost all inhabitants forced out of their communities.
The violence has continued unabated since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages were taken. Israel has retaliated by opening heavy artillery and ground assaults to damage Hamas’s government apparatus and military installations. But at a terrible cost of civilian lives in Gaza. Over 46,600 Palestinians were reported dead, according to the Hamas health ministry estimate, and over 90% of damaged housing units, according to United Nations estimates. A total of 160,000 houses were turned to rubble, and 276,000 houses were badly or severely damaged, and their inhabitants have nothing to go back to but rubble.
Displacement became life-changing living in Gaza. Israeli commands had already forced the civilian populace south of the Wadi Gaza river before the ground combat, but even southern towns such as Rafah, Khan Younis, and Deir al-Balah were coming under bombardment. North and South were devastated by late November. UN emergency camps were filled, and members of families were living in tents, improvised compounds, or along beach openings. Over 1.2 million of them entered the area of al-Mawasi, also with sub-minimum conditions, as the population continued to shift due to the ongoing campaign.
Civilians were evacuated half-effectively at best. Human Rights Watch documents that evacuation orders were flawed, contradictory, or impossible to implement within the time frame. Orders were issued during a communications blackout, and families were provided with no prior warning. Primary evacuation routes, such as the Salah al-Din Road, were being shelled, and so-called “safe places” were shell-blasted twenty-four hours a day. There was nowhere safe in Gaza.
Intentional targeting of the principal civilian infrastructure has taken place. A spatial evaluation in April 2024 once more had it that 60.8% of hospitals, 68.2% of schools and universities, and 42.1% of water plants were destroyed during the initial phases of hostilities. More than a third of them became totally useless. Damage was found to be extremely centralized in centers, and that is gravely raising questions regarding the observance of international humanitarian law.
Hospitals, schools, and water treatment plants—the very lifeblood of the community—were leveled. Over half of North Gaza’s and Gaza City’s institutions were destroyed. Even evacuation zones in the south were destroyed, once more endangering those who had been able to escape. Without operational hospitals, schools, and clean drinking water, every moment was a struggle for the displaced to survive.
Human crisis was mounting as a de facto blockade imposed by Israel cut off food, water, electricity, and petrol. Aid convoys, which were already a matter of life and death for 80% of Gazans before the war, became a trickle.
The World Food Programme had estimated that there would be at least 300 lorries of aid brought in every day to provide even the bare essentials, but they never even came remotely close to fulfilling that. Malnutrition has reached an all-time times worse than during wartime. The children grew frail and emaciated and were bony, starvation still lingering in the background as they incessantly struggled and were confined.
International organizations have repeatedly warned of probable violations of humanitarian law. Amnesty International documented indiscriminate bombings under which entire families were slaughtered and strategic facilities were destroyed with little warning. Human Rights Watch characterized Israel’s forced transfer of Palestinians as extensive, systematic, and intentional, amounting to crimes against humanity in sections and even ethnic cleansing.
Rebuilding Gaza will be a Herculean task. UN puts damages at $18.5 billion—seven times 2022 enclave GDP. The economy and infrastructure could take decades to recover even after the ceasefire. The hospitals remain in the dark, there are no schools, and water plants are patchy. Normal life will remain a day-to-day struggle even long after the guns have fallen silent.
Gaza’s history today is a survival story under disastrous circumstances. It’s a grim case study in the breakdown of international law, the toll in shared trauma, and the resilience of a people who have been forced to build again on destruction. Ceasefires may hold for a time, but the rest of us are left to contend with the scale of human misery—and the long, open road stretching out before Gazans.
