CNN —
A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect on Sunday, with the first six-weeks of the deal ushering in a pause to fighting, the staggered release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and an influx of aid to Gaza. The three-phase ceasefire has raised cautious hopes for an end to the war.
Israeli bombardment of Gaza since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks has caused a devastating impact on the territory, with aid agencies warning that damage to critical infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, water and health care facilities, will take years to rebuild.
Here’s a look – in 6 charts – at what Gaza is like after 15 months of war.
An additional 11,000 people remain unaccounted for – likely either missing or not yet found under rubble, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
However recent research suggests that the death toll could be far higher than current estimates. A London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) study that was also published in The Lancet journal this month found that the Palestinian health ministry has underreported the death toll by approximately 41%. As of October 2024, the number of Gazans killed by violence was thought to exceed 70,000, according to the study.
Meanwhile, the health ministry said in October that one third of those killed in the first year of the war were children.
Israeli military strikes have razed most of Gaza to rubble, with Gaza City the most heavily destroyed. Around 436,000 housing units have been destroyed or damaged across the strip, according to the United Nations.
Around 1.9 million Palestinians – or about 90% of the population – are internally displaced, according to the UN. Many people in Gaza have been displaced multiple times – some up to 10 times.
The Israeli military regularly ordered evacuations from one area of danger to another, according to the UN, who have repeatedly said there “is no safe place in Gaza.” Evacuation orders were issued across 67% of Gaza throughout the course of the war, according to data from the Institute for the Study of War.
Those orders were often airdropped by the Israeli military – a method Amnesty International said was “not an effective warning to civilians” – or posted to social media – an inaccessible form of communication for many Gazans without power or internet.
The Israeli military has said that it does all it can to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza, including by sending text messages, making phone calls, and dropping evacuation leaflets to warn civilians ahead of attacks.
Al-Mawasi, a 67 square kilometer (25.9 square miles) area – roughly the size of Manhattan, has become the main displacement and refuge area for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians ordered by the Israeli military to leave their homes. Before the war, there were 9,000 people living there. By July 2024, the population of the camp had swelled to 1.7 million, according to the UN-backed Famine Early Warning Systems Network. In October, the camp’s population was estimated to be 730,000, according to UNICEF.
Despite being designated as a humanitarian zone by Israel, Al-Mawasi has been targeted repeatedly by Israeli airstrikes.
Many people in Gaza have struggled to access food for over a year.
Prior to the war, Gaza was “largely self-sufficient” in fresh produce, according to the UN. Israel’s military operation has damaged or destroyed up to 96% of agricultural assets, including farms and orchards, according to the World Bank. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN that it “does not intentionally harm agricultural land and seeks to mitigate environmental impact absent operational necessity.”
Most of Gaza is reliant on humanitarian aid, but many aid entry points into Gaza have been closed by Israeli authorities throughout the war.
That includes the Rafah crossing with Egypt, the sole border crossing between Gaza and Egypt – and once one of the largest and most important aid crossings into Gaza – which has been closed since May 2024, when Israel seized control of it. Other aid entry points have been open with extremely limited access.
The UN said in November that people are “effectively starving as the conflict rages, with humanitarian organizations blocked from delivering assistance to those in need.”
Before the war, an average of 500 trucks a day – around 15,000 trucks a month – containing aid and commercial goods entered Gaza per month.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an update on Tuesday that only 2,205 aid trucks had entered Gaza in the month of December, excluding commercial vehicles and fuel.
Israel disputed that number, saying there is no limit on the amount of aid that can enter Gaza and that over 5,000 trucks had entered over the course of the month, according to a statement from the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which manages the flow of aid into the strip.
Meanwhile, trucks that do enter Gaza are now facing additional challenges in moving across the territory: Approximately 68% of the road network has been damaged, according to satellite imagery analysis by UNOSAT.
And criminal gangs continue to loot convoys carrying food.
Gaza’s health care system is in ruins. Prior to October 2023, there were 36 operational hospitals in Gaza. Now, not a single hospital in Gaza is fully functional.
Israel’s pattern of attacks has “pushed the health care system to the brink of total collapse,” according to a December UN report. To date, the World Health Organization (WHO) has verified 654 attacks on health care facilities in Gaza, resulting in 886 fatalities and 1,349 injuries.
The IDF has said that Hamas fighters embed inside hospitals and store arms in them.
Only half of Gaza’s hospitals are partially operational, relying solely on aid and fuel deliveries to function.
Fuel shortages continue to threaten the care for around 2,000 patients, according to the WHO’s health cluster, around 10% of whom are in intensive care units. Additionally, more than 12,000 patients are estimated to require urgent medical evacuation abroad.