Satellite images taken over three years show extensive changes to the features of the Gaza Strip, from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the south, with around 82% of the Strip's buildings damaged and residential neighbourhoods and agricultural areas transformed into rubble, exposed land and displacement camps, alongside the construction of roads, earth berms and Israeli military deployment points.
Comparisons between the landscape recorded before 7 October 2023 and images taken later provide a visual record of the scale of change in the urban fabric and land use. The images show densely populated neighbourhoods losing large parts of their buildings, schools and universities being destroyed, and trenches, internal roads and areas designated for vehicle deployment appearing at various locations.
In September 2025, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israeli forces had committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, a finding Israel rejected. The subsequent satellite images cover the governorates of North Gaza, Gaza, Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah, as well as the routes of the Yellow and Orange lines inside the Strip.
The boundaries imposed by Israel inside Gaza help explain several of the changes visible in the images, particularly in areas that experienced extensive urban destruction or the construction of roads, berms and military sites. The changes are not limited to the disappearance of buildings; they also include the reshaping of areas of land and changes to their function and accessibility.
UNOSAT estimates of urban damage
An analysis by the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT), based on images taken on 16 June 2026, estimated that around 200,000 buildings had been damaged, equivalent to approximately 82% of all buildings in the Gaza Strip. The analysis classified 134,422 buildings as destroyed and 13,848 as severely damaged.
The analysis also estimated the number of damaged housing units at 328,627. Alongside these losses, an analysis of satellite images identified 40 Israeli military sites inside areas of Israeli army deployment in the Strip by May 2026, including eight sites established after the ceasefire agreement in October 2025.
These sites include earth berms, trenches, internal roads and areas for vehicle deployment. They introduced further changes to the Strip's geography after the destruction of buildings and infrastructure. The images show stages in the construction of some sites and the expansion of others through time comparisons covering October 2025 to May 2026.
Destruction in northern Gaza and expansion of military sites
In the North Gaza governorate, images taken before the war showed dense, interconnected urban areas in Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and Jabalia. Later images show extensive areas of destroyed buildings, rubble and open spaces, with exposed land replacing parts of the urban blocks that had been connected before the military operations.
In Beit Lahia, images taken by the US company Planet documented successive stages of change in the landscape, alongside the emergence of military deployment points, berms, ground preparation work, roads and new routes serving the movement of forces and vehicles. A time series for one of the new military sites shows how quickly engineering work was carried out in the area.
In an image dated 14 October 2025, the site's features were not visible, before engineering work began by 18 November of the same year. By 18 May 2026, the site's external structure had been completed, with equipment and facilities visible within its boundaries. The changes in northern Gaza also extended to civilian and educational facilities.
An analysis of educational infrastructure up to 21 June 2026 found that 52 schools and four universities in the governorate were completely out of service, while 40 other schools had suffered partial damage, reflecting the extent of damage beyond residential areas alone. In Gaza governorate, comparisons show extensive change within the Shuja'iyya, Zeitoun and Tuffah neighbourhoods.
By September 2025, UNOSAT estimated that around 83% of buildings in Gaza City had been damaged, including 17,734 buildings classified as destroyed. The Zeitoun neighbourhood alone recorded 2568 newly damaged buildings compared with images from July 2025, illustrating the speed of change affecting the city's eastern and southern neighbourhoods during that period.
The images did not only document urban damage; they also showed construction and expansion work at military sites east of the city. In the Juhr al-Dik area, an image taken on 14 October 2025 showed open land with no clear military site. Work began in the area in March 2026, before an image from 18 May revealed berms, engineering work and arrangements linked to a new military site.
Another military site east of Gaza City expanded by around 70% between October 2025 and May 2026. The expansion included additional fortifications and new areas designated for vehicle deployment, changing the shape of the site and its surrounding area in less than seven months.
Declining agriculture and expanding displacement camps
In the central Gaza Strip, a comparison between an image taken on 30 May 2023 and another taken on 4 October 2026 reveals major changes in the area west of Deir al-Balah. The earlier, pre-war image showed agricultural land, orchards and open plots interspersed with scattered residential areas.
The more recent image shows a clear reduction in agricultural cover and the transformation of large areas, particularly near the coast and in areas east of it, into dense clusters of tents and temporary shelters with light-coloured roofs. These clusters spread across land that was cultivated or largely undeveloped in 2023. By 2026, tent and shelter clusters had formed connected blocks at several locations west of Deir al-Balah.
Parts of the agricultural land also appeared less dense and more fragmented, with exposed areas and passageways emerging within displacement areas, reflecting the impact of population movement and the war on land use in the governorate. In other parts of central Gaza, images taken after the ceasefire showed excavation and fortification work around an Israeli military site.
The work included the construction of a trench and a new area for vehicle deployment, alongside rubble removal and the opening of some roads, combining changes linked to military deployment with others related to reorganising movement in the area. Images of Khan Younis provide one of the clearest comparisons between the city's pre-war appearance and what it later became.
Between April and July 2025 alone, UNOSAT identified 8681 newly damaged buildings in the governorate, including 5865 inside Khan Younis city. After the ceasefire agreement, satellite images identified three new Israeli military sites in Khan Younis.
One of them was established on the ruins of the eastern cemetery, where engineering work began in November 2025 before equipment and areas for vehicle deployment appeared in images from May 2026. At another site east of Khan Younis, the images and field analysis showed seven Israeli observation towers standing on an earth berm at an elevation of approximately 78 metres above sea level.
Damage in Rafah and affected educational facilities
Alongside the new sites, these towers form an additional monitoring and deployment network within the changes that have occurred in the eastern part of the governorate. In Rafah, at the southernmost point of the Strip, the changes extended across areas larger than a single building or street. Between April and July 2025, 7112 buildings were added to the list of damaged structures in the governorate, while comparisons in central Rafah, Rafah camp and Tal al-Sultan showed the expansion of areas that had lost their previous urban density.
The damage also affected educational infrastructure in Rafah. An analysis of the images documented the complete destruction of 24 schools and one university, along with partial damage to 40 other schools and universities. Images taken in June 2026 also showed examples of damaged schools in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood.
A total of 179 destroyed or damaged educational facilities are located in areas under Israeli control beyond what is known as the Yellow Line. This figure includes 122 facilities that were completely destroyed and 57 that were partially damaged, creating an additional geographical obstacle to their reuse or rehabilitation.
Satellite images document the scale of the spatial transformation that has affected Gaza over three years, but they do not fully convey the conditions of residents facing displacement, renewed bombardment, the lack of services and the closure of roads and vital facilities.
Nevertheless, the comparisons show the extent of the damage, changes in land use and the emergence of a new military infrastructure in several areas of the Strip.
