As of 2026-06. OCHA's situation report of 26 June 2026 states that most of Gaza's 2.1 million people remain displaced; the figure is revised in OCHA's regular reporting and will move.
After the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and saw around 251 taken hostage into Gaza, Israel launched an extensive air and ground campaign against Hamas across the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces issued repeated evacuation orders, pushing the population south and then into ever-shrinking designated 'humanitarian' or 'safe' zones such as Al-Mawasi, while establishing military corridors, including the Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors, that fragmented the territory; UN OCHA estimated some 1.9 million people, about 90% of Gaza's population, were displaced at least once, many repeatedly. The offensive caused tens of thousands of deaths according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry (figures cited by the UN as broadly reliable) and widespread destruction of housing, hospitals, and infrastructure, alongside a severe hunger crisis. A ceasefire-and-hostage framework was reached in January 2025 followed by renewed fighting, and by 2026 the situation remained volatile, with large-scale displacement, destruction, and humanitarian access constraints continuing amid a partial and contested ceasefire process.
Following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and around 251 taken hostage, Israel launched a large-scale military offensive in the Gaza Strip, repeatedly ordering evacuations that displaced the large majority of Gaza's population, often multiple times.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimated 2.1-2.2 million people in Gaza in mid-2023. OCHA and UNRWA reported that about 1.9 million people, close to 90 per cent of the population, had been displaced at the peak, most of them repeatedly, and OCHA reporting in 2026 states that most of Gaza's 2.1 million people remain displaced.
The Gaza Ministry of Health recorded 73,770 Palestinians killed as of 3 May 2026; a January 2025 Lancet capture-recapture study found the ministry had undercounted trauma deaths by about 41%, and a November 2025 Max Planck Institute study estimated 100,000-126,000 violent deaths, 27% children under 15 and 24% women. All of these measure violent death; the separate July 2024 Lancet correspondence figure of 'up to 186,000' is an indirect-and-direct excess-mortality projection and is not comparable to a killed count, though it is frequently quoted as one. Israeli officials have disputed the ministry's figures, while an IDF official accepted a total above 71,000 in January 2026; 1,139 people were killed in Israel on 7 October 2023 and Israeli military fatalities passed 1,100 by late 2025.
The UN Commission of Inquiry, OHCHR and the IPC have documented mass civilian killing, famine conditions and obstruction of aid, large-scale destruction of housing and infrastructure, incommunicado detention of Gazans, and torture and sexual violence in detention — findings Israel disputes.
Palestine