Gaza: A photo timeline of three years of destruction

Over the past three years, Israel’s military campaign has devastated Gaza’s health system.

Palestinians have faced mass displacement, starvation, repeated attacks, growing restrictions, and the destruction of essential infrastructure and healthcare. 

These images document the widespread suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and show how the conditions for providing and receiving healthcare have progressively deteriorated.

7 October 2023 – A ball of fire and smoke rises above a building in Gaza City during an Israeli air strike that hit the Palestine Tower building.

Following Hamas’ attacks on 7 October 2023, Israel launched a massive military offensive across the Gaza Strip, causing widespread and systematic destruction of essential civilian infrastructure. 

Three years later, more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 173,000 wounded, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The cumulative physical toll, mental trauma, loss of family members, homes and memories, repeated forced displacement, and inhumane living conditions will scar Palestinians for generations.

19 October 2023 – MSF nurse Mohammed Hawajari applies a dressing to a young boy at the MSF Burns Clinic after he suffered burns from an airstrike.

Over the past three years, MSF teams have provided Palestinians with surgical care, wound and burn care, malnutrition treatment, maternal and paediatric care, mental health support and other vital services.

MSF teams currently run four hospitals, support four general healthcare centres and work in five clinics and four medical points, both in the northern and southern part of the Strip.

20 November 2023 – Five clearly marked MSF vehicles parked outside an MSF clinic in Gaza City were destroyed during an intervention by Israeli forces. 

Attacks on healthcare facilities and the restrictions on the entry of vital supplies have severely constrained the provision of medical care.

Hospital generators, ambulances, water pumps and water trucks depend on engine oil and spare parts to keep running. Yet Israeli authorities continue to block their entry into Gaza, disrupting services that people rely on to survive.

21 November 2023 – A notice board at Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, following a strike that killed three doctors, including two MSF staff members. 

Nearly 2,300 health and humanitarian workers have been killed since the 7 October, including 15 of our MSF colleagues.

12 December 2023 – Medical staff deal with massive influx of trauma patients at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

Nasser Hospital was one of the few remaining hospitals able to provide emergency surgical care in southern Gaza. 

Hospitals and health facilities have been under extreme pressure, with wounded patients arriving in unprecedented numbers and thousands seeking shelter inside and around them.  

13 March 2024 – A room inside Nasser Hospital, after weeks of fighting and a siege that culminated in Israeli forces entering the facility.

Three years on, the WHO reported that 94 percent of hospitals in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. Only 19 of the Strip’s 36 hospitals are still operational and many can only provide limited services.

13 May 2024 – Displaced Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip carry their belongings as they leave following an evacuation order by the Israeli army.

During the first months of the Israeli military offensive, many families were displaced repeatedly, particularly from the northern and central middle areas of the Gaza Strip. 

By early 2024, Rafah was already sheltering around 1.5 million people who had sought refuge there. Subsequently, Israeli forces have caused extensive destruction in Rafah.

27 August 2024 – Karam, 17, from Nuseirat Camp in central Gaza, receives physiotherapy at MSF’s Reconstructive Surgery Hospital in Amman.

Medical evacuations from Gaza remain extremely limited. The WHO has estimated that 18,500 patients need specialised medical care. More than 900 patients have already died while waiting to be evacuated for treatment.

7 November 2024 – A view of overcrowded tents in the Attar area of Khan Younis, South Gaza, where displaced families live in cramped conditions with limited access to basic items, such as water, food and clothing.

Since 7 October, 82 percent of structures in Gaza have been damaged, with two thirds of them destroyed according to UNRWA. Thousands are forced to live in dangerous conditions with limited access to clean water and toilets. 

Nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, including desalination plants, boreholes, pipelines and sewage systems.

1 February 2025 – Children hold empty pots at a community kitchen in northern Gaza.

After months of the Israeli government’s siege and restrictions on food and aid, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) formally confirmed famine in Gaza on 22 August 2025. 

MSF teams identified the first cases of child malnutrition in January 2024. Between then and March 2026, MSF admitted 4,950 children under 15 for acute malnutrition.

98 percent of these children were under five. 3,482 pregnant and breastfeeding women were enrolled in outpatient nutrition programmes. 

Three years on, malnutrition has relatively stabilised amid this so-called ceasefire, but the situation remains extremely fragile, with people facing restricted access to food and essential supplies.

25 July 2025 – Palestinians gather at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution site in Netzarim, putting their lives at risk to receive food.

Israeli authorities dismantled the UN-led humanitarian aid distribution system and replaced it by GHF in areas under Israeli military control and “secured” by private American armed contractors. 

Between 7 June and 24 July 2025, MSF health centres near GHF sites received 1,380 injured people, including 28 dead bodies, and treated 174 people with gunshot wounds. 

One year on, MSF still treats people that received life-changing injuries and trauma at GHF sites.

9 October 2025 – A displaced mother and daughter prepare a meal over an open fire inside their makeshift tent in Khan Younis.

OCHA estimates that 90 percent of Gaza’s population has been displaced multiple times. Since October 2025, Gaza became increasingly fragmented by an unclearly marked and ever shifting military-controlled “yellow line”. 

This line has divided areas under different levels of Israeli military control. The Israeli military is estimated to fully control 58.9 percent of the Strip, severely restricting movement and access for civilians and humanitarian actors. 

When the unmarked buffer zone, known as the “orange line”, is included, the affected area rises to an estimated 64.9 percent of Gaza.

23 March 2026 – An MSF physiotherapist fits a 3D-printed mask on Joud, a four-year-old burn patient.

Since 1 January 2026, MSF’s registration in Israel has been withdrawn, preventing international MSF staff from entering Gaza and blocking MSF supplies from entering the territory. All international staff were required to leave by the end of February. 

The Israeli authorities ordered 37 aid organisations, including MSF, to cease operations in Gaza and the West Bank by 31 March. 

MSF has continued its work through 1,500 Palestinian staff registered with the Palestinian Authority, with international staff supporting the response remotely from Amman.

20 April 2026 – A staff member at Al-Helou Hospital in Gaza City checks on a low-weight newborn lying in an incubator.

An analysis of MSF medical data from late 2024 to early 2026, a period marked by severe restrictions on food and humanitarian aid, found higher rates of prematurity and mortality among babies whose mothers experienced malnutrition during pregnancy. The analysis also found high rates of miscarriage.

2 June 2026 – Doaa, a physiotherapist, heats a sheet of thermoplastic material to mould it into a custom splint at MSF’s Al-Zawayda field hospital in Gaza.

Despite this so-called ceasefire, Palestinians continue to face daily violence. Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza has left an estimated 43,000 people with life-changing injuries and more than 50,000 requiring long-term rehabilitation. 

The Ministry of Health has documented approximately 6,000 amputations. This includes 1,500 children. 

Rehabilitation services are severely overstretched, and specialised equipment remains extremely difficult to obtain.