Satellite imagery appeared online on Sunday, showing the consequences of the Israeli military offensive that followed Hamas' attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Google Earth has not confirmed the exact upload date of the images, though reports indicate some imagery was captured throughout this year. Newsweek has contacted the Israeli military and Google Earth for comment.
"The updated Google satellite images of Gaza are quite incredible, for all to see,” Barry Andrews, an Irish Member of the European Parliament, wrote on X, referring to flattened buildings and districts reduced to rubble. His post, as of Monday afternoon, had received five million views, 30,000 likes, and thousands of reposts. "The Google images act as yet another record of the systematic destruction of Gaza where at least 82 percent of its buildings have been destroyed or damaged," Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, told Newsweek on Monday.
"These images have shocked the world for years. The question is when they will shift the positions of major leaders, not least the U.S.," he added. Nathan Ruser, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, wrote on X that the imagery "shows the reality of Gaza in shocking resolution." Hamas killed at least 1,200 people and kidnapped over 250 in the October 7 attacks nearly three years ago.
Following Israel's military response, 74,016 Palestinians have been killed, with another 175,068 wounded as of Monday, according to the , citing Gaza's Health Ministry. A ceasefire that came into effect on October 10, 2025 has stopped the heaviest fighting, although Israeli strikes have continued in what the IDF said are in response to threats and attacks. The UN Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) said on August 12 that 82 percent of all Gaza structures, or 200,000, had faced some damage, with two-thirds of them destroyed in a statistic which chimes with the latest Google Earth imagery.
The southern city of Rafah features prominently, with areas that once had rows of homes now appearing mostly cleared, with makeshift shelters visible across wide areas. In Gaza City, the satellite imagery shows destruction around Al Shifa Hospital, which sustained fierce Israeli assaults during the war. The hospital's urban surroundings differ greatly from previous imagery.
Israel accused Hamas of hiding a command post inside and under the compound in claims denied by the group and hospital staff. Rebecca Wolfe, a conflict and humanitarian response expert at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy, told Newsweek that little has been discussed about the challenging operating environment during the war in Gaza, which is tiny and densely populated. A United Nations report published last week said that around 1.9 million people in Gaza had been displaced, with many forced to move more than once.
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