Maps and charts of the Israel-Gaza war explaining how the conflict is evolving

Thursday, December 14

Israel has focused its offensive over the past two weeks on southern Gaza. It is the area to which, according to the Israeli army itself, the population of the north had to go to evacuate Gaza City and its surroundings. The bombardments of the last few days are focusing on Khan Younis, the second largest city, already overwhelmed for weeks by the influx of people from the north: it is now estimated that it is now hosting more than double its real population.

Satellite imagery shows the extent of the destruction in the Khan Younis area. The movements of the earth caused by the shelling or the paths of the Israeli incursions are clearly visible from the sky. According to the estimate of academic researchers Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek, at least 2.75 square kilometers of new areas have been destroyed in Khan Younis, i.e., areas that were not damaged before October 7. This would be a larger area than Gaza City.

Wednesday, November 15

All but one of Gaza's hospitals are out of service because of the Israeli military offensive. The only one that works, Al Ahli, tries to assist about 500 patients. Meanwhile, Israeli troops claimed on Wednesday to have entered Al Shifa, the largest medical center in the Strip. There would be at least 650 patients in a situation of extreme fragility: "It has been three days without electricity, water and a very bad internet connection that has seriously affected our ability to provide basic medical care. Constant gunfire and shelling have exacerbated already critical conditions," warned World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The rest of the centers are out of service due to a lack of electricity, medical supplies, oxygen, food and water, in addition to shelling and clashes in the surrounding area, according to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid.

Friday, November 10

The Israeli army claimed this week to have reached "the heart" of Gaza City. In addition to shelling this part of the Strip on a daily basis, its troops have entered from the center and from the north.

As can be seen in the map above, they are already confronting Hamas in a very restricted area: several experts in open source research (OSINT) have located the entrances to Hamas' tunnel network released by Israeli forces and images of these militants directly attacking enemy tanks.

Tuesday, November 7

It has been a month since a group of Hamas militants entered Israel and killed hundreds of civilians. After 30 days of siege by the Israeli army of the Gaza Strip, it is difficult to find a recent conflict with similar magnitudes of deaths or buildings destroyed in such a short time.

In Gaza, according to figures from the Ministry of Health that are also used by the United Nations, the death toll is now more than 10,000. The rapidity at which they have been accumulating is incomparable to the conflict in Eastern Europe. It is worth remembering that you can leave from Ukraine: in the first week alone, about a million people left the country. In Gaza, its inhabitants are not allowed to leave the Strip.

Saturday, November 4

Israeli attacks have hit a large number of civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip in recent days. On Friday afternoon, at least 15 people were killed in shelling of an ambulance convoy near Shifa hospital. Another attack on Saturday killed more than a dozen people and injured at least 50 at a UN school in the Jabalia refugee camp, which had already been hit several times this week.

Friday, November 3

The Israeli army claims to have surrounded Gaza City and has several areas of the city under its control. The latest information from the Center for the Study of War (ISW) indicates that there has been hand-to-hand combat between the buildings (many of them destroyed by shelling). Over the past two days, Israel has airlifted at least two refugee camps in the northern Gaza Strip.

Thursday, November 2

Jabalia, the largest refugee camp in northern Gaza, has suffered two Israeli bombardments in 24 hours with dozens of deaths. The following image shows the impact of the rocket and, further down, the same area a few days earlier.

Satellite image of the area affected by the explosion in the Jabalia refugee camp on October 31MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES (via REUTERS)

Satellite image of the area before the bombingMAXAR TECHNOLOGIES (via REUTERS)

Already in the first days of the war, a mosque in another refugee camp near Gaza City (Shati) had been hit by Israeli shells.

Tuesday, October 31

Israeli incursions into the northern Gaza Strip have intensified since last weekend, to the point that Israeli tanks have even cut off the main road in the Strip, a day after the UN warned that aerial bombardments had hit about three of Gaza City's main hospitals.

Saturday, October 28

The Israeli air offensive in Gaza has left a trail of destruction affecting numerous buildings in the Strip where civilians once resided.

Thursday, October 26

The Israeli army deployed its largest ground incursion into Gaza since the start of the war, with infantry units and tanks pouring in from the northern Gaza Strip. The military leadership warned that it was a preparatory operation for a subsequent full-scale invasion, and that it would not be the only one.

Wednesday, October 25

In the three weeks since the Islamist militia Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 — and Israel bombed the Gaza Strip in retaliation — at least 2,360 children have been killed by Israeli bombs, according to data from the Gazan Health Ministry on Tuesday. In 18 days, the total number of children killed in Gaza over the past 23 years has been surpassed.

Tuesday, October 24

The Israeli army's air strikes on the Gaza Strip have intensified over the past day. With more than 700 dead, Gaza has faced the bloodiest day of the war, according to Palestinian authorities.

Monday, October 23

Demonstrations of violence are spreading across the Middle East. Altercations have intensified on the Israeli-Lebanese border, with exchanges of fire between the Jewish state's soldiers and members of Hezbollah; in the West Bank, with demonstrations forcefully repressed by Israeli forces; and in neighboring Syria, with Israeli airstrikes on two Israeli airports.

Sunday, October 22

After 15 days of war, the United Nations estimates that there are one million internally displaced people in Gaza. At least 600,000 of them have moved south, overflowing cities such as Khan Younis, which has doubled its population. In some of the densest areas of this city, where 270 people per hectare lived before the conflict, up to 540 can now be found. The main road through Gaza is not always a safe transit point.

Friday, October 20

Constant Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, numbering in the hundreds a day, have led civilians in the Strip to abandon their homes and seek refuge in buildings run by international agencies, such as schools run by the United Nations.

The satellite images above show the locations of three of these schools along the Strip. The shelters are located both in the area Israel has asked to evacuate, to the north, and in the south, where the photograph below is taken.

Refugees are seen at one of the UN-run schools in Gaza last week. IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA (REUTERS)

Thursday, October 19

Egypt has begun repairing the road to the Rafah crossing, which connects the Sinai Peninsula with the Gaza Strip, following the announced opening of the crossing for the entry of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave. This border crossing is the only funnel through which the aid will pass, given the blockade imposed by Israel after the surprise attack by Hamas on October 7.

On Thursday, more than a hundred trucks loaded with humanitarian aid waited for the gate to open and fix the road on the Palestinian side, damaged by at least four bombardments launched by Israel in recent days. Even more vehicles await in the Egyptian city of Al Arish.

Many of the trucks waiting in the parking area on the Egyptian side will have to continue waiting, as the agreement with the United States, after Israel's approval, only refers to an initial convoy of 20 trucks. Much of the Gaza Strip's more than two million people were already dependent on humanitarian aid before the war broke out, with about <> trucks smuggling humanitarian aid into Gaza every day, according to United Nations estimates.

Wednesday, October 18

An explosion on Tuesday night at the Al Ahli Al Arabi hospital in Gaza City has led to an exchange of accusations between the two sides. Israeli spokesmen blamed Islamic Jihad for the failed rocket launch, which hit outside the health center, killing at least 500 people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Hamas, for its part, accused the Israeli armed forces of launching the airstrike that caused the massacre at the hospital.

Tuesday, October 17

The escalation of tension with Hezbollah in Lebanon, on the northern border, leads Israel to evacuate communities less than two kilometers from the line that divides it from the neighboring country. Meanwhile, in Gaza, one million people have fled their homes in the northern Gaza Strip, the area that Israel intends to attack most harshly. It is not clear that the Rafah border crossing will be reopened, although part of the international community is mobilizing to at least bring in humanitarian aid.

Monday, October 16

In 10 days of offensive, the death toll exceeds that of the last 15 years. In addition, 10,850 people have been injured in the bombardment of Gaza, according to the local Health Ministry. The number of internally displaced persons in the Gaza Strip continues to rise: more than 600,000 people, or one in four Gaza residents, have fled their homes in search of safety in the south of the country.

Sunday, October 15

The UN Refugee Agency says it is failing to ensure the safety of its schools and hospitals, where Gazans fleeing their homes are crowded, for the first time: Gaza is facing a human disaster.

Saturday, October 14

The international community has been positioning itself on the escalation of violence in the region: Western and Pacific democracies are at the core of support for the Jewish state. The new war, as happened with the invasion of Ukraine, exacerbates the confrontation between that bloc and actors such as Iran, Russia, China and Turkey.

Friday, October 13

Israel's army orders the evacuation of more than a million Gazans to the south within 24 hours. All border crossings with Israel are closed and the supply of electricity, gas, water, food, medicine and fuel is disrupted. The only access point to the enclave is the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, a small infrastructure that connects to Egypt's Sinai desert but has been closed following Israeli bombardment.

Wednesday, October 11

The escalation of war incidents on the border with Lebanon threatens to open a new front against the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia. The death of a dozen soldiers makes the day the bloodiest on record since the end of the war in the summer of 2006. Since then, 10,800 soldiers from 40 countries, including 600 Spaniards, have been deployed to the border from the international interposition force.

Tuesday, October 10

In the first three days of the war, more than 1,000 deaths have already been recorded. Israel's army is hitting Gaza hard, claiming to have hit more than 1,200 "targets" between Saturday and Monday alone and vowing to "double the number" in the next 24 hours. It is estimated that in the Gaza Strip, where residents are under blockade of goods and services and cannot enter or leave freely, Hamas is holding at least 150 hostages captured during the incursion.

Sunday, October 8

Hamas' offensive is also surprising in its magnitude: more than 5,000 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip over the weekend. The map below shows the unusual hot spots (mainly caused by explosions) detected by Sentinel II, the European Space Agency mission that was flying over the area at the time.

Saturday, October 7

At around 6:30 a.m., Hamas militias carried out an incursion into Israeli territory by land, sea and air. They can enter up to 20 kilometers from the Gaza Strip. The initial lack of counteroffensive makes it easy for them to take prisoners and kill hundreds of civilians on the kibbutzim.

Kibbutz Reim was hosting the Tribe of Nova music festival, where militiamen stormed, killing at least 260 people.

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