Three years of war have transformed Gaza beyond recognition, decimating economy and services

Three years into a war that began with the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, Gaza has become a place where the ordinary structures of life have simply ceased to exist. The Palestinian enclave, home to roughly two million people, has been reshaped by sustained Israeli military operations—aerial bombardment, ground assault, and a system of territorial control that now restricts Palestinians to less than 30 percent of the Strip. The scale of loss is staggering: more than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health, and even the ceasefire announced in October 2025 has not stopped the dying. Since that supposed truce took effect, another 1,462 Palestinians have been killed, while Israeli military activity has continued across the territory.

For those still alive, survival has become the organizing principle of each day. In September, the United Nations found that 94 percent of Gaza's population was in urgent need of shelter and basic household assistance. Nearly two-thirds of households were living in tents or makeshift structures—families forced from their homes by military operations or evacuation orders with nowhere else to go. The infrastructure that once made daily life possible has been destroyed or rendered unusable. There is no functioning electricity grid; people depend on generators and fuel that grows scarcer by the month. Water insecurity has worsened dramatically, with 91 percent of assessed households experiencing moderate-to-high water shortages in early August, up from 84 percent just two months earlier. Roads are damaged, communications networks are fractured, and the simple acts of collecting water, charging a phone, or cooking a meal now require planning and resources that were once taken for granted.

The economic devastation is nearly total. According to the UN Conference on Trade and Development, 92 percent of Gaza's economic establishments have been damaged or destroyed since October 2023. Unemployment has reached 78 percent. The measure of economic output tells the story in numbers: GDP per capita fell to $212 in 2025, roughly 17 percent of what it was in 2022. Agriculture and industry are each operating at just 6 percent of their pre-war capacity. Construction has collapsed to 1 percent. Prices for basic goods have climbed to around 200 percent above pre-October 2023 levels, making what little is available increasingly unaffordable. Restrictions on the movement of goods—most of which historically passed through Israeli-controlled crossings—have deepened the damage. Economic researcher Rami al-Zaygh told Al Jazeera that the war had pushed society backward by decades, reviving old professions and creating new forms of work using whatever tools and materials people could find. Most families now survive on cash assistance from humanitarian organizations, and even physical currency has become scarce; people increasingly rely on digital payments and e-wallets.

Education has been effectively halted for an entire generation. Nearly 98 percent of Gaza's schools have been damaged or destroyed, according to UNICEF. For almost three years, hundreds of thousands of children had no regular access to in-person schooling. As of April 2026, around 700,000 children aged 4 to 17 had missed nearly three consecutive years of classroom learning. Some are now studying in tents and temporary learning spaces. Around 200,000 children have no access to education at all. The Palestinian Ministry of Education has warned of serious losses in basic skills and a widening academic gap—the educational prospects of an entire generation have been threatened by years of interrupted schooling.

The health system has been pushed to the edge of collapse. All 36 of Gaza's hospitals have been damaged; only 19 are currently functioning, and none is operating at full capacity. Those still open are struggling with severe shortages of essential medicines, medical equipment, diagnostic supplies, and fuel. Cancer treatment has been disrupted. Dialysis services are compromised. Care for people with chronic diseases has become sporadic. Access to specialized treatment outside Gaza has remained limited; since October 2023, about 12,400 patients have been medically evacuated, but the World Health Organization says tens of thousands more require care unavailable inside the territory. The combination of a collapsing health system and deteriorating living conditions has created dangerous public health conditions. In September, the WHO warned that overcrowding, inadequate shelter, poor water and sanitation were increasing the risk of disease outbreaks—and that Gaza's health infrastructure was not equipped to respond.

The geography of Gaza itself has been redrawn by military control. A demarcation line known as the Yellow Line, established under the October 2025 ceasefire, marks areas of Israeli military deployment and restricted access. Since its establishment, Israel has moved it deeper into populated areas, forcing families to leave. According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israeli military control and access restrictions now cover around 70 percent of Gaza, concentrating more than two million Palestinians in less than 30 percent of the territory. Rafah, in southern Gaza along the Egyptian border, exemplifies this transformation. During the war, more than one million Palestinians displaced from across the Strip sought refuge there. In May 2024, an Israeli military operation in Rafah displaced more than 800,000 people. Today, almost all of Rafah except for the western area known as Mawasi Rafah is under Israeli control, leaving those displaced from the city unable to return to their homes. Euro-Med warned on September 29 that the expansion of Israeli-controlled areas was entrenching forced displacement and denying Palestinians access to their homes and land, with no guarantees of return.

The systems of governance and public order have been severely weakened. Before the war, Hamas had administered Gaza since 2007. The conflict has degraded that civilian administration significantly. In July, Hamas announced it would hand administrative powers to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a Palestinian technocratic body, but the transition has not yet occurred. Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked police officers and security posts. Between January and May 2026 alone, the UN Human Rights Office recorded at least 12 attacks on police, killing 53 people, including 35 police officers. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights has warned that these attacks have weakened civilian protection systems, contributing to a security vacuum, kidnappings, attacks on property, and looting of humanitarian aid. For the people of Gaza, three years of war have left behind profound uncertainty and no clear path forward.