Google Maps shows new satellite images of the devastation in Rafah and Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip

It is not the first time that images have been seen showing the situation in the Gaza Strip before and after the Israeli intervention following the attacks by Hamas on 7 October 2023. And it probably won't be the last. Each update of the satellite photos made by Google on its maps brings with it new details and offers further testimony to the scale of the devastation that has hit that part of Palestinian territory.

And this is what happens after the American technology giant recently made satellite images available on Google Maps and Google Earth dating back to the beginning of 2026, i.e. a few months ago. The new photographs do not concern the entire Strip but only Rafah and Khan Younis, two cities in the south where the action of the Israeli armed forces razed entire neighborhoods and population centers to the ground, leaving nothing but rubble.

Let's see some of them.

The images

The extent of the damage

The destruction in the Gaza Strip, which was highest in the first months after the attacks, continues even after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas declared in October 2025. According to a recent estimate by the UN Satellite Center (UNOSAT), the United Nations satellite image analysis centre, since that date the number of destroyed structures has grown by 9%.

Since the ceasefire, UNRWA, the UN agency that deals with aid for Palestinian refugees, has denounced the demolition of schools and United Nations structures in areas under Israeli military control. Overall, according to UNRWA, 82% of the buildings in the Strip have been damaged, two thirds of these have been destroyed.