Three Years of Devastation: Gaza Transformed into Vast Tent Cities Amid Ongoing Conflict

A makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians who lost their homes during Israel’s war on Gaza stretches across Gaza City.

More than one in 10 people from Gaza’s pre-war population has been killed or wounded by Israeli fire since the conflict began in October 2023. Nearly every family is now grieving for the dead or caring for the injured, while most residents have been forced to move repeatedly to escape fighting and evacuation orders. With almost the entire population left homeless, the coastal territory has effectively become one of the world’s largest tent cities, where ramshackle canvas and nylon shelters blanket beaches, cover former agricultural lands, and fill vacant lots.

Little is likely to change soon. A 2025 "ceasefire" deal halted large-scale offensives and the heaviest bombardment, but Israel still regularly strikes tents, cars, and buildings in attacks that frequently kill women, children, and other relatives. People no longer have to flee from place to place, but few can rebuild because Israel continues to bar most construction materials from entering Gaza. The "ceasefire" agreement’s plan for large-scale reconstruction has stalled, as Israel and Hamas have yet to reach an agreement on disarming the group and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Najwa Abu Eita sits inside her tent in Nuseirat, central Gaza; she was injured in an Israeli bombardment during the war and lost her seven-year-old daughter in 2024.

Murid Akhziq, 43, lights a fire to cook inside his Gaza City home, which was destroyed during the war.

Mourners gather at the Church of St Porphyrius in Gaza City for the funeral of Palestinians Maisaa Abu Dawood and her daughter, Mary, killed in an early-morning Israeli air strike on October 3, 2026.

Palestinians walk along a street lined with tents sheltering displaced people and buildings destroyed by Israeli military strikes.

Mourners gather around the flag-draped remains of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes after their bodies were recovered from the rubble during a funeral in Gaza City.

Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed in attacks in Gaza City.

A destroyed UN-run school in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City.

Palestinian Civil Defence crews carry a body from the rubble of a collapsed building that housed displaced Palestinians and was heavily damaged during the war, in Gaza City.

More than 90 percent of Gaza has been destroyed, and Israeli forces now control 80 percent of the besieged territory, according to Palestinian authorities.