New Google Maps images reveal massive scale of devastation in Gaza: Satellite imagery shows further destruction of homes, businesses and places of worship since fragile ceasefire

Al-Mawasi in Rafah in 2023 (left) and 2026, with huge tented camps lining much of the shoreline. Composite: Google

Gaza in The Guardian 

Jason Burke and Eithne Staunton

Thu 1 Oct 2026 

An update to 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 City is packed with shacks, tents and huts.

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, where 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 recent UN assessment estimated that the number of destroyed structures across Gaza had increased by 9% since the declaration of a ceasefire in October 2025.

“The estimate of the total amount of rubble in Gaza is 61m tonnes. It is approximately 20 times the amount of rubble generated in all wars across the world over the last 18 years,” Jaco Cilliers, the UN Development Programme’s special representative in Palestine told the Guardian last month. The presence of human remains still buried under the rubble remains one of the most urgent humanitarian problems... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/01/new-google-maps-images-reveal-massive-scale-of-devastation-in-gaza

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61m tonnes of rubble: Gaza aid workers face delicate task of clearing ruins concealing up to 10,000 bodies. Removal of war debris, in which lives, memories and unexploded Israeli bombs lie buried, is one of largest clearance operations in modern history

A child watches a bulldozer on Beirut street in Gaza City, once a busy area that now lies in ruins. Photograph: Amjed Tantesh/The Guardian

 Seham Tantesh in Gaza City

Sun 27 Sep 2026

It took all day to clear a section of road in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood in Gaza City. At the end of it, Ahmed Alyan, a UN engineer, was exhausted, surrounded by mountains of rubble despite the day’s work.

“I feel as if we are holding a spoon and trying to empty the sea,” Alyan said, beads of sweat trickling down his forehead after a long, hot summer day.

Alyan is part of a World Food Programme (WFP) team who have been working on Beirut Street, once a busy main thoroughfare lined with shops, offices and homes and filled with traffic and people. But now it is virtually deserted.

The road was blocked by piles of rubble, stones and the wreckage of destroyed shops. Nearby, a tower stood tilted after some of its concrete foundations were damaged, while displaced families continued to live inside. In some parts of the road, sewage flowed from the ground after the drainage system was damaged and blocked by Israeli bombardment.

The UN estimates that removing the bulk of the rubble in the Gaza Strip could take at least seven to 10 years and cost billions of dollars. That would make the removal of war debris in Gaza one of the largest rubble-clearance operations in modern history.

“The estimate of the total amount of rubble in Gaza is 61m tonnes. It is approximately 20 times the amount of rubble generated in all wars across the world over the last 18 years,” said Jaco Cilliers, the UN Development Programme’s special representative in Palestine.

The task is being carried out in extremely difficult and hazardous conditions. The clearance teams are working in ruins containing countless dead bodies and unexploded bombs. So far, 580km of roads have been cleared, which has in turn made possible the movement of aid trucks, relief teams and residents.

However, the reconstruction of Gaza is a huge challenge facing international and local organisations. After more than two years of work, about 907,000 tonnes of rubble have been removed and more than 300,000 tonnes recycled and reused. But this represents only about 1.5% of the total rubble.

To make things more difficult, the Israeli authorities have banned the necessary equipment from entering Gaza on the grounds that almost any aid that is not food or medicine could be “dual-use”  ...READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/27/rubble-gaza-un-aid-workers-ruins-dead-bodies

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NPR- Skeletons in their clothing: Recovering bodies from the rubble in Gaza....An Israeli drone buzzes over a sea of debris in northern Gaza, where homes were turned into mass graves...

A neighborhood of Beit Lahia was destroyed in Israeli strikes in October 2024, including a strike on a building that killed 132 members of the extended Abu Naser family.

May 6, 20265:00 AM ET

By 

Anas Baba

BEIT LAHIA, Gaza Strip — An Israeli drone buzzes over a sea of debris in northern Gaza, where homes were turned into mass graves.

This is where a recovery crew has carried out one of its first missions to unearth bodies buried deep under rubble — at the site of one of the deadliest Israeli strikes of the Gaza war.

The strike destroyed a five-story apartment building in late October 2024, killing more than 132 members of the extended Abu Naser family sheltering inside, an NPR investigation documented.

"We've been dreaming every day of the moment we could recover the martyrs, honor them, and bury them," said Ola Abu Naser, a 30-year-old survivor. "Every day we felt as if they were calling us, saying: 'We are here.'"

About 8,000 bodies are believed to still be buried under debris throughout Gaza, according to Gaza's health ministry.

NPR documented the three-day recovery mission at the site of the Abu Naser family massacre.... READ MORE  https://www.npr.org/2026/05/06/nx-s1-5811930/gaza-recovering-bodies

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The Art of Occupied Palestine ... Dreaming at the Window.... painting by Palestinian artist Shaima' Farouki.

artist_shaimafarouki

 

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"Israel is allowing fewer than 200 aid trucks a day into the Strip, despite a ceasefire deal requiring 600. Ismail Al-Thawabteh of Gaza’s media office says Israel is “managing hunger in Gaza deliberately, slowly, and cumulatively,” with malnutrition now above 90 percent. He adds that Israel has killed at least 342 Palestinians since the Oct. 10 ceasefire began and continues to block heavy machinery needed to recover bodies from rubble. He calls it deliberate starvation and obstruction of relief, urging mediators to pressure Israel to comply."

Assal Rad

@AssalRad

 

The genocide is not over.

 

Drop Site

@DropSiteNews

 

 Israel Blocking More Than Two-Thirds of Aid Agreed Under Ceasefire Deal.  Gaza authorities reiterate that Israel is allowing fewer than 200 aid trucks a day into the Strip, despite a ceasefire deal requiring 600. 

 

Ismail Al-Thawabteh of Gaza’s media office says Israel is “managing hunger in Gaza deliberately, slowly, and cumulatively,” with malnutrition now above 90 percent. 

 

He adds that Israel has killed at least 342 Palestinians since the Oct. 10 ceasefire began and continues to block heavy machinery needed to recover bodies from rubble. 

 

He calls it deliberate starvation and obstruction of relief, urging mediators to pressure Israel to comply.

 

https://x.com/AssalRad/status/1993413459300724997 

 

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The Guardian’s view on Gaza’s future: the ceasefire brought relief, but the world must not look away now. Palestinians are being born amid the rubble. They need not only immediate relief but long-term justice

‘Thousands of bodies are still believed to be trapped beneath the ruins ­– debris which, it is estimated, would take a fleet of more than a hundred lorries seven years to shift.’ Photograph: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters

What future is there for Palestinians in Gaza? The announcement of the ceasefire brought profound relief, shaded by an equally deep sense of trepidation. Almost a month later, the picture looks bleaker. The Israeli offensive abated, Hamas has returned the surviving hostages and the remains of some of those who have died, and Israel has released some Palestinian detainees and the remains of others.

But more than 200 Palestinians, including children, have reportedly died in strikes that Israel says are in response to Hamas attacks. Thousands of bodies are still believed to be trapped beneath the ruins ­– debris which, it is estimated, would take a fleet of more than a hundred lorries seven years to shift. Aid is flowing again, but remains wholly inadequate, with NGOs warning that Israel’s new registration system is obstructing delivery. Israeli demolitions continue in the half of Gaza that its forces still hold. Unicef warned this week that the education system – in so far as it survives after two years of war and the destruction of more than 90% of school and university buildings – is on the brink of collapse. New babies are born literally in the rubble, to mothers who have neither homes nor working hospitals.

Fears about maintaining the ceasefire have not disappeared.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/06/the-guardians-view-on-gazas-future-the-ceasefire-brought-relief-but-the-world-must-not-look-away-now

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Mosab Abu Toha 's Ceasefire poem January 2025

BBC News "Gaza has no functioning port, so a makeshift jetty stemming from the shoreline was built by WCK's team using rubble from [Israeli] destroyed buildings."

World Central Kitchen barge loaded with food is the first maritime shipment of aid to arrive in Gaza

The first maritime humanitarian aid shipment to Gaza has been unloaded on to the shore.

Gaza: Aid reaches Gaza shore in first sea delivery

"...Saturday's shipment arrived on board Spanish charity ship Open Arms. Its cargo includes beans, carrots, canned tuna, chickpeas, canned corn, parboiled rice, flour, oil, salt and pallets of dates, which hold spiritual significance during Ramadan.

It had been checked by Israeli officials in port in Cyprus.

It marks the start of a trial to see if the sea route would be more effective than air and land deliveries.

Aid agencies have repeatedly warned that no method of relief is as effective as delivery by land, but they say Israeli restrictions mean a fraction of what is needed is getting in.

In a statement, WCK said: "All cargo was offloaded and is being readied for distribution in Gaza."

Teams worked through the night to get the aid on to dry land.

Gaza has no functioning port, so a makeshift jetty stemming from the shoreline was built by WCK's team using rubble from destroyed buildings...."

 READ MORE       https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68581090

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Pray for Palestine

 

Today's Nativity scene inspired by Israeli Bombing Campaigns 2023 #Gaza #Bethlehem, #Palestine #Christmas #Christ

 

Photos: Lutheran Christ Church in #Bethlehem, #Palestine

#Christmas

#Gaza

 

This is the nativity scene at the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem this year. It is based off pastor Munther Isaac’s sermon, “God is Under the Rubble.” Please read if you have not yet:

https://sojo.net/articles/god-under-rubble-gaza

 

 

GAZA UPDATE: More than 6,600 Palestinian children in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces since October 7, according to the Governmental Media Office. 

 

Thousands more are still missing under the rubble.