Gaza City, Gaza Strip – Three years after Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the Palestinian enclave has been transformed beyond recognition. Israel’s sustained aerial and ground assault has devastated vast parts of the Gaza Strip, destroying homes and neighbourhoods and severely damaging its infrastructure and essential services. The war has shattered the lives of a population of around two million people.
Repeated displacement and evacuation orders have uprooted families and communities, while more than 74,245 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Although a “ceasefire” was announced in October 2025, it has not brought an end to the suffering. The Ministry of Health says 1,462 Palestinians have been killed since the “ceasefire” took effect, while Israeli attacks and other military activity have continued across the Strip.
Years of war have brought the collapse of education, healthcare and the economy, while access to food, water, shelter and other basic necessities has become a daily struggle. For people in Gaza, the war has changed not only where they live, but how they carry out the most ordinary parts of daily life. A home, running water, electricity and a mode of transport – the basic infrastructure of everyday life – no longer exist for many Palestinians in Gaza.
In September, according to the UN, 94 percent of Gaza’s population remained in urgent need of shelter and basic household assistance, while 65 percent of households were living in tents or makeshift shelters offering little protection from the elements, having been forced from their homes by Israeli attacks or forced evacuation orders. Many families also lacked adequate bedding, lighting, kitchen equipment and sanitation facilities, according to the United Nations. Water has become another daily challenge.
Ninety-one percent of assessed households experienced moderate-to-high water insecurity in early August, up from 84 percent in June, according to the UN. Electricity is similarly unreliable. Gaza has remained without a functioning electricity grid, leaving essential services and households dependent on generators and increasingly scarce fuel, engine oil and spare parts.
Damaged roads and communications networks have also made transport, phone and internet access and access to basic services more difficult. The result is a daily life reorganised around survival: collecting water, charging a phone, cooking, washing and moving between services all require resources and planning that were once unnecessary. Gaza’s economy has been devastated by the war, with the destruction of businesses and local industries leaving families with little income and sharply reduced purchasing power.
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