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Google Maps imagery taken in June reveals the scale of destruction across Gaza, where 82% of structures are damaged and more than 2.1 million people live in tents.
Google Maps has revealed the extent of devastation during the three-year Gaza war and the severity of the continuing humanitarian crisis faced by the territory's 2.3 million inhabitants.
The images were taken in June this year and show further destruction of homes, businesses, places of worship and infrastructure since a fragile ceasefire came into effect almost 12 months ago. They show huge tented camps lining much of the shoreline, often within a few metres of the sea. Gaza's once busy main port, now badly damaged and empty of fishing boats, is surrounded by makeshift accommodation. Any available open space in Gaza is filled with temporary shelters.
Destruction Spreads Along Gaza Coast
The satellite and map imagery captures how displaced families have spread along the coast and into whatever land remains clear. The images also show massive damage to northern towns such as Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, as well as the destruction of places of worship such as the Istiqlal mosque in Khan Younis. Major neighbourhoods in Gaza City such as Jabaliya and Shuja'iya, which were targeted in repeated Israeli offensives, are clearly now uninhabitable.
Swaths of rubble are visible in the south of Gaza, where a wide strip appears to have been cleared by Israeli forces along the border with Egypt. The town of Rafah appears to have been almost entirely reduced to rubble and Tel al-Sultan razed to the ground. More than 2.1 million displaced people are living in tents and temporary shelters in Gaza.
About 82% of structures, roughly 200,000 buildings, have been damaged, with about two-thirds of those destroyed, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa. A UN assessment estimated that the number of destroyed structures across Gaza had increased by 9% since the declaration of a ceasefire in October 2025. Jaco Cilliers, the UN Development Programme's special representative in Palestine, described the scale of the debris.
Record Rubble Volume In Gaza
The estimate of the total amount of rubble in Gaza is 61m tonnes, he told the Guardian last month. That figure is approximately 20 times the amount of rubble generated in all wars across the world over the last 18 years, Cilliers said. The presence of human remains still buried under the rubble remains one of the most urgent humanitarian problems. Recovery efforts face enormous obstacles given the volume of debris.
More than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, mostly civilians. The conflict was triggered by a surprise attack by Hamas into Israel in October 2023. In that attack, militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 others hostage. The new imagery adds visual confirmation to years of UN and aid agency warnings about the destruction.
It shows a territory where housing, commerce, worship and basic infrastructure have been shattered. Relief organisations say the humanitarian crisis continues even after the ceasefire, with families exposed to the elements and dependent on aid. The map images underline how little of Gaza has been left intact.
Recent Gaza Conflict Developments
Separate recent developments include reports of a pregnant woman among more than 10 killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza, a far-right Israeli minister outlining a plan for the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza, and Israel admitting its soldiers fired at a car in which Hind Rajab was killed. US President Donald Trump has said a complete disarmament of Hamas was agreed in Gaza, but Israel has yet to accept that position.
Google Maps Satellite Imagery Gaza Humanitarian Crisis UN Rubble Estimate Rafah And Gaza City Damage
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