Maps of the Gaza Strip: Daily life under the blockade

 Maps of the Gaza Strip: Daily life under the blockade

The Gaza Strip, which is home to 2.2 million people, is a densely populated enclave that is 41 km (25 miles) long and 10 km broad. It is bordered on one side by the Mediterranean Sea and is walled off from Egypt and Israel.

Since 2007, Hamas, an Islamist organization dedicated to Israel's destruction, has ruled over Gaza.

Israel sent soldiers into Gaza in retaliation for Hamas's assault on the country on October 7. The goal, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is to "dismantle" Hamas and free the captives.

Israeli soldiers and armored vehicles have entered northern Gaza as a result of the military operation, which comes after three weeks of bombings and an Israeli "complete siege" of the Gaza Strip, during which the Israeli defense minister warned that "there will be no electricity, no food, and no fuel."

Gaza City is encircled by Israeli soldiers.

As the Israel Defense Forces attempt to launch further assaults into Gaza City, there is now fighting across the northern region of Gaza.

Additionally, there have been brief breaks in the combat, lasting four to five hours per day, during which time residents have been permitted to leave down the major route heading south.

Airstrikes by Israel

Every day, hundreds of Israeli bombings occur in Gaza; Israel claims to have deployed over 10,000 bombs and missiles, severely damaging infrastructure and structures in the process.

Satellite photos of Gaza before and after reveal devastation

According to Gazan authorities, since the battle began, more over 50% of the city's housing units have been destroyed, rendered unusable, or suffered damage.

The figure below illustrates which metropolitan areas have experienced concentrated damage, based on analysis of satellite data by Oregon State University's Jamon Van Den Hoek as well as Corey Scher of the CUNY Graduate Center.

Map showing Gaza's damage to buildings

The first people to get warnings from Israel to evacuate their houses were the people living in Beit Hanoun, which is close to the northeastern border. Waves of airstrikes were then conducted by Israeli aircraft against the region, which the IDF claimed as a Hamas headquarters from which "many operations against Israel were launched."

Israel seems to have focused its airstrikes most recently on Gaza City's coastal neighborhoods and Jabalia.

Israel has kept up its assaults on what it claims are Hamas objectives in southern Gaza, even though it has ordered Palestinians to flee south of the Wadi Gaza for their own safety.

In Bureij, Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah, and Rafah, buildings have been struck and damaged; sometimes, these have happened close to shelters and schools where evacuees have sought safety.

According to Unosat, around 270 road segments seem to have been damaged by debris or craters, impeding the delivery of relief and emergency services.

According to an analysis of damage outside of metropolitan areas, Gaza's capacity to raise its own food has been hampered by the destruction or damage to dozens of agricultural greenhouses and fields dotted with obvious impact craters.

Aid halted at the border

supplies organizations claim that although Israel has started to let some humanitarian supplies into Gaza, it is far from sufficient.

According to UN estimates, almost 100 vehicles delivering supplies are needed every day only to meet Gaza residents' basic requirements. But since permitting supplies to start on October 21, Israeli officials have only let 756 trucks to enter the border, which is less than one-third of what the UN believes is required for the population's basic needs.

Approximately 80% of the population need humanitarian help prior to the present war, and relief organizations would have anticipated that 500 trucks would enter Gaza each working day.

Danger of malnutrition

The UN organization that has been giving Gazans shelter and humanitarian assistance previously issued a warning, saying that if fuel and other supplies were not delivered, it could have to close its doors.

The assistance program is still in place for the time being, but there are worries about food supplies running out and the possibility of hunger.

Because to low stock levels and logistical challenges, staple items including bread, eggs, and dairy products are no longer accessible in most stores.

The lack of fuel and water makes it difficult to cook staple foods like rice and lentils, but according to the World Food Programme (WFP), some of these necessities may run out this week.

According to the UN, nine of the bakeries it collaborates with are running and giving food to shelters. Due to fuel shortages, bakeries are unable to satisfy local demand, and the UN has warned that many of them may close in a matter of days if they are not restocked. As of right now, there are no bakeries operating in Gaza's northern region.

Low-flowing water

Following the Hamas strikes on October 7, Israel shut off a large portion of Gaza's potable water supply, raising worries about dehydration, waterborne illnesses from contaminated sources, and a shortage of sanitary facilities.

UNRWA, the UN organization for Palestinian refugees, has issued a warning, stating that "people will start dying without water."

According to the WHO, each individual requires 100 liters of water per day at the very least for drinking, cleaning, cooking, and taking a bath. Prior to the fighting, Gaza's average water usage was around 84 liters, of which only 27 were deemed fit for human use.

According to WHO figures, the typical resident in Gaza uses barely three liters of water each day.

Two of the pipelines from Israel are once again providing some water, but the water pumping stations have been closed because of power outages or have been destroyed by airstrikes.

Due to a shortage of fuel, every municipal well in Gaza's north and south has shut down, and the sole desalination plant still in operation is one that is only operating at a minimal level to provide drinking water.

blackouts of electricity

Due to the closure of its only power plant and the suspension of Israeli supplies, Gaza's electrical system is now without power.

About 80% of Gaza's structures, including schools and medical institutions, were probably without electricity as of October 21. Hospitals and UN shelters are among the few structures with power because they have generators, and the fuel for them is going to run out.

camp for refugees

Before Israel issued a warning to Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza, the UN estimates that little more than 1.7 million individuals, or just over 75% of the total population, were registered refugees.

People whose "place where they lived was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, as well as those who lost both home and means of employment as a result of the 1948 War" are considered Palestinian refugees by the UN. It is also possible for the offspring of Palestinian refugees to petition for refugee status.

Of them, over 500,000 were already housed in eight densely populated camps spread around the Strip.

The other six camps are under more strain since Jabalia and Shati, two of those camps, are located in the evacuation zone.

Since the evacuation order was issued, the number of displaced persons has increased quickly; as of October 7, the UN estimates that 1.5 million people have left their homes.

Over 50% of Gaza's population is displaced.

In its emergency shelters in central and southern Gaza, the UN cautions that overcrowding has become a serious problem, with some buildings having four times the capacity. With 22,100 individuals — ten times the capacity— the Khan Younis Training Centre is the most congested shelter.

Numerous emergency shelters are converted classrooms, with as many as 240 people staying in a single classroom in some of them. Older boys and men are forced to spend the night outdoors sleeping.

crammed houses

Many Gazanos lack proper housing as a result of Israel's ongoing clashes with Palestinian terrorists.

According to estimates from the Norwegian Refugee Council, over 120,000 extended families reside in overcrowded, unsafe houses without windows, secure roofs, or doors.

Over 40,000 houses have been damaged by Israeli airstrikes, according to Palestinian authorities; 2,200 additional homes from earlier confrontations since 2014 also need to be rebuilt.

In 2014, another 72,000 were damaged but not destroyed, and they were not given any financial assistance for repairs.

The existing housing crisis in Gaza is made worse by the destruction of those houses. According to the Global Shelter Cluster, 120,000 units would need to be constructed in Gaza in order to house everyone, even before the present catastrophe.

A crisis in hospitals

Large organizations, like as hospitals, have backup generators; but, when current supplies run out, the blockade prevents gasoline from getting to these generators. It is known that at least two hospitals have converted to smaller, secondary generators that power just critical spaces like operating rooms and critical care units.

Hospitals in Gaza "risk turning into morgues" without power, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that a third of hospitals and two-thirds of other basic care institutions in Gaza have now closed as a result of bomb damage or fuel shortages.

Medical professionals have said that it is hard to safely transfer patients, especially those on life support, although Israeli evacuation orders have been sent to the hospitals that are still operational in Gaza City and the north on many occasions in recent days.

Due to a lack of medical equipment and resources, Gaza's public health facilities were already overburdened, and many specialized procedures were unavailable.

Northern Gaza is evacuated

Ahead of the anticipated Israeli military assault, Israel issued a warning to residents on October 13 asking them to leave the region of Gaza north of the Wadi Gaza riverbed.

The most populous region of the Gaza Strip, Gaza City, is included in the evacuation zone.

Those residing in the evacuation zone were forced to move southward due to the closure of the Erez border crossing into Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces have been pausing combat for up to five hours a day in recent days so that more people may utilize the southern escape route.

An evacuation area map

Gaza has one of the greatest population densities in the world, with 2.2 million people living on a very narrow strip of land.

Khan Younis is the biggest metropolitan center in the south, yet it cannot accommodate a million Palestinians fleeing the north since its population is just half that of Gaza City.

Gaza's average population density is around 5,700 persons per square kilometer, which is comparable to that of London. However, Gaza City, the region with the highest population density, has over 9,000 people per square kilometer.

Gaza City was teeming with people.

border shutdowns

With only a restricted foreign national evacuation via Egypt allowed, citizens of Gaza had little chance of escaping the violence.

There were only two crossings open for transit into and out of Gaza before to the Hamas onslaught; the majority of the previous border crossings had been closed for years.

Unless they get a departure permission granted by Israel, Palestinians are prohibited from leaving Gaza via Israel. Only day laborers, company owners, medical patients and their companions, and assistance workers were eligible for the permits.

A perimeter fence guards the whole 60km border with Israel; only agricultural laborers are permitted within 300m of the barrier, and "no-go" sections stretch up to 100m (330ft) from the fence itself.

The Rafah crossing allows people to enter Egypt from Gaza, but there are strict security restrictions and registration requirements. Applicants must apply to Egypt and register with the Palestinian authority many weeks in advance.

Israel has now blocked the Erez crossing permanently, while Israeli bombings near the Palestinian side gate have resulted in the closure of the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing in the south.

The latter had stopped food, water, and medical supplies from traveling from Egypt into Gaza.

In an attempt to circumvent the embargo, Hamas has constructed a network of tunnels over the last 20 years, which it utilizes as a subterranean command center and to transport supplies into the Strip from Egypt.

Israel said that people also sneak weapons via the tunnels and move about unseen. It often launches airstrikes on them.

The IDF said that during a war in 2021, airstrikes had destroyed over 100 kilometers of tunnels. In response, Hamas said that just 5% of the 500 km long tunnel system had been affected.

Young population: According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, approximately 60% of people in Gaza are under 25 years old, making it one of the youngest countries in the world.

This contrasts with little over 20% in London, where data from the 2021 census shows that over 65% of the population is between the ages of 25 and 64.

Gaza has among of the worst unemployment rates in the world, with over 80% of the population living in poverty and projected to reach 45% in 2022.