New satellite imagery highlights scale of destruction in Gaza as humanitarian crisis persists

Newly updated satellite imagery of the Gaza Strip is drawing renewed attention to the extent of destruction in the territory nearly three years into the Israel-Hamas war, according to a report by France 24.

Google Maps updated its satellite coverage of Gaza for the first time since the conflict began, and the new images show large areas of the territory reduced to rubble, offering one of the clearest independent visual records yet of the physical toll of the war on Gaza's cities and infrastructure.

The updated imagery comes as the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire. France 24 reported that Israeli strikes have continued across the territory even as the scale of destruction from earlier phases of the conflict becomes more visible through the new satellite data.

The war began after Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, and the subsequent Israeli military campaign in Gaza has resulted in widespread destruction of homes, hospitals and other infrastructure, alongside a humanitarian crisis marked by displacement and shortages of food, medicine and shelter for much of the territory's population.

Satellite imagery has increasingly served as an independent tool for assessing the scale of damage in conflict zones where on-the-ground access for journalists and international monitors is restricted, as has often been the case in Gaza throughout the war.

France 24's report did not specify which areas of Gaza showed the most extensive new damage in the updated images, nor did it provide a comprehensive figure for total structures destroyed to date.