Attacks on protected zones and civilians in the Gaza Strip during the Gaza war have led to the killing of over 75,000 Palestinians and the displacement of over 2 million people, as well as the collapse of the education system and the destruction of most homes and hospitals. The UN estimated 90% of civilian infrastructure have been destroyed and 70% of the city's water production has been disrupted. Amnesty International stated that experts described the speed, scale and magnitude of destruction in Gaza as "unprecedented" in the 21st century, with large areas destroyed and critical infrastructure, agricultural land and cultural and religious sites destroyed, leaving substantial parts of Gaza uninhabitable.

In December 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported that 29,000 Israeli bombs, munitions and shells had been dropped on the densely populated strip, leaving the majority of the city's water, electrical, communications, and healthcare infrastructure damaged beyond repair. Human rights monitors have criticized Israel's use of heavy explosive weapons (such as 2000-pound bombs) and white phosphorus in densely populated areas as a prima facie violation of the proportionality requirement, as the incidental harm is generally vast. The New York Times, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented that Israeli heavy bombs have wiped out entire multigenerational families and neighbourhoods and struck crowded civilian spaces like markets and designated evacuation sites. In January 2024, researchers from Oregon State University and the City University of New York estimated that 50 to 62 percent of all buildings in the Gaza Strip were damaged or destroyed. By October 2025, the United Nations estimated that 83% of all structures and houses had been destroyed or damaged.

Military operations targeting water infrastructure, alongside blockade measures, have led to most of the Palestinian population being displaced from their homes, and reinforced severe shortages of safe water and widespread starvation. United Nations experts have criticized Israel, alleging that these measures amounted to collective punishment and constituted the use of starvation and deprivation of water as methods of warfare.

Israel has faced accusations of war crimes and genocide from South Africa, the UN Human Rights Council, International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), and Amnesty International, among others, due to deliberate restriction of water and food, the number of civilian casualties and the percentage of civilian infrastructure destroyed, including Palestinian refugee camps, schools, mosques, churches, and more. In September 2025, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory concluded that Israel had committed four of the five acts of genocide defined under the Genocide Convention in Gaza since 7 October 2023.

Healthcare facilities

The healthcare system in Gaza has collapsed due to the blockade of Gaza, lack of fuel, power cuts, and airstrikes. From the beginning of the war to 30 November 2023, the World Health Organization reported 427 attacks on health care in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. By February 2024, it was reported that "every hospital in Gaza is either damaged, destroyed, or out of service due to lack of fuel." On 24 January 2024, the WHO announced that only seven of 24 hospitals in northern Gaza and seven of 12 hospitals in southern Gaza were operational. On 7 February 2024, the United Nations announced that only 4 of 22 health centers in Gaza remained operational.

In 8 October, 2025, a joint statement was made by national medical associations, including the British Medical Association, who reported that at least 94% of hospitals in the Gaza Strip had been damaged or destroyed, with many being rendered non-operational.

List of attacked healthcare facilities

Al-Ahli Arab Hospital Al-Amal Hospital Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital Al-Shifa Hospital Al-Quds Hospital Al-Rantisi and Al-Nasr children's hospitals Al Awda Hospital European Hospital Indonesian Hospital Jordan Field Hospital Kamal Adwan Hospital Kuwaiti Hospital Nasser Medical Complex Palestine Children's Relief Fund Rehabilitation Centre for Visually Impaired Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani Hospital Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital Yafa Hospital Yemen Al-Saeed Hospital

Medical personnel and emergency services On November 3, 2023, an Israeli strike hit a marked ambulance outside Al-Shifa Hospital that resulted in the killing of 15 people and injuring 60. On 29 Jan, 2024, an ambulance and two paramedics were dispatched to rescue a 6- year old Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab, who had contacted the Palestinian Red Crescent for help. Approximately 12 days later, the bodies of Rajab, her family members and the two paramedics was found at the scene, along with a destroyed ambulance nearby. Israel claimed its forces were not in the vicinity at the time. However, an investigation by The Washington Post based on satellite imagery, communication records, and visual evidence, reported that Israeli armoured units were indeed operating in that area. Independent analyses by the Forensic Architecture concluded it was likely Israeli armoured units that fired on the car that Rajab and her family had been in, as well as the ambulance and paramedics.

Schools and universities

From 7 October 2023 to late March 2024, the United Nations reported multiple airstrikes on more than 200 educational facilities, including universities and schools, by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the Gaza Strip. The attacks have resulted in the collapse of the Gazan education system, affecting 625,000 students.

List of attacked schools and universities

The Abu Hussein School The Al-Buraq School The Al-Fakhoora School The Al-Falah School The Al-Maghazi UNRWA School The An-Nazla School The Al-Sardi School The Al-Tabaeen School The Haifa School The Israa University The Martyr Assad Safwati School The Nuseirat school The Osama bin Zaid school The Salah Ad-Din School

Cultural, historical and religious places

According to international law, cultural heritage, cemeteries, and religious places are considered civilian infrastructure and their destruction can be considered a war crime of “committing outrages upon personal dignity” under the Rome Statute. According to historians, Gaza is one of the oldest inhabited areas in the world, dating back to at least the 15th century BC.

In South Africa's genocide case against Israel, Israel was accused of targeting Palestinian culture, destroying modern museums and cultural centers, and threatening the "cultural potential" of Gaza by damaging schools as well as teachers and killing journalists and intellectuals. Israel claimed that the targeting of cultural and religious places and cemeteries is due to finding and returning the bodies of Israeli hostages and Hamas using these places for military purposes. CNN's analysis of satellite images and videos showed that the Israeli forces use cemeteries as military outposts. According to CNN's investigation, at least 16 cemeteries in Gaza have been desecrated by IDF, tombstones have been destroyed, the soil has been overturned, and in some cases, bodies have been unearthed.

Israeli attacks have destroyed more than 200 buildings of cultural and historical importance in Gaza, including mosques, cemeteries, and museums. UNESCO reported that at least 22 sites, including mosques, churches, historical houses, universities, and archives, were damaged or destroyed as a result of multiple Israeli attacks.

List of attacked cultural and historical places The Rafah Museum The Al Qarara Museum The Mathaf al-Funduq Museum The 13th-century Qasr Al-Basha (Pasha's Palace) The Rashad El Shawa Cultural Center The Library of the Great Omari Mosque The Samir Mansour community bookshop The Union of Palestinian artists on Jalaa Street The clay pots in the al-Fawakher district The Hammam al-Sammara (Samaritan Bathhouse) The fortified city of Tell el-Ajjul (Calves Hill) The Church of Saint Porphyrius The Holy Family Church The Byzantine Church of Jabalia The Saint Hilarion Monastery The historic old city The archaeological site of Anthedon Harbour

List of attacked cemeteries The Gaza War Cemetery The Bani Suheila cemetery The rd-al-Moharbeen (the Roman Necropolis) The Al Falouja cemetery The Shajaiya cemetery The Al-Tuffah cemetery The Islamic cemetery in southern Gaza The New Bureij cemetery The Sheikh Radwan cemetery The Beit Lahia cemetery

List of attacked mosques The Gaza's medieval Omari Mosque The ancient Othman bin Qashqar Mosque The Sayed al-Hashim Mosque The Katib al-Waliya Mosque The Al-Bukhari Mosque The Khalid Bin Al-Waleed mosque The Khalil Al-Rahman mosque The Al-Ansar Mosque

Shelters and camps

In the Gaza war, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have carried out numerous airstrikes on densely populated Palestinian refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, as part of the bombardment and invasion of Gaza.

List of attacked Shelters and Camps The Jabalia refugee camp The Al-Shati refugee camp The Al-Mawasi refugee camp The Maghazi refugee camp The Tel al-Sultan refugee camp The Al-Bureij refugee camp The Nuseirat refugee camp The Shaboura refugee camp The Jenin refugee camp The Nur Shams camp

Civilians

Since 7 October 2023, at least 38,983 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed, including more than 15,000 children. More than 89,727 people have been injured and more than 10,000 people are missing in Israel's war on Gaza. In March 2024, Al Jazeera reported that Israeli forces made a pattern of killing entire families by targeting homes where they had taken shelter. On 29 February 2024, Gaza's Ministry of Health reported that 44% of the fatalities were children.

Heavy bombs In the first month of the war, Israel dropped hundreds of 2000-pound bombs on the Gaza Strip. 2000-pound bombs are four times heavier than the vast majority of the largest bombs that the US has used in the Iraq war and are capable of flattening entire apartment buildings and yield a lethal fragmentation radius that can kill or injure with a range of up to 365 meters (about 1,198 feet), or the equivalent of 58 soccer fields in area. Weapons and warfare experts have warned against its usage as they point out that Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world and these bombs will likely lead to indiscriminate civilian harm. Marc Garlasco, a former US defense intelligence analyst, said that the density of bombardment in Gaza was not even seen during the Iraq war, and one needs to go way back to the Vietnam war to find comparable levels.

In December 2023, The New York Times reported that Israel used hundreds of 2000-pound bombs in heavily packed areas that it had designated as "safe zones" for evacuating civilians. Using satellite imagery and AI tools, reporters identified over 200 bomb craters that were consistent with the use of 2,000-pound bombs. In May 2024, the US conceded that the 2000-pound bombs they had supplied to Israel were killing civilians and announced they will be pausing shipments of MK84 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. Then U.S. President Joe Biden told CNN that, "Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centres". The US export block however was lifted shortly afterwards by the Trump administration and a U.S. shipment of 1,800 MK-84 2,000 pound bombs was delivered to Israel in February 2025.

AI-assisted bombings