New Google Earth Images Show Scale Of Gaza Destruction: What We Know

New imagery and change-detection tools available through Google Earth are offering another way to visualise the extent of physical changes across Gaza after nearly three years of war.

Google announced its experimental Detect Change tool on September 23. It compares Earth-observation data between two annual intervals and produces a 10-metre-resolution heatmap showing areas where significant physical changes have been detected. Google said the tool can be used with historical imagery to examine how locations have changed over time.

The imagery provides a visual record of changes to the built environment, but does not itself establish why a structure was destroyed or attribute responsibility for individual incidents.

What The Imagery Shows

Google said Detect Change uses a combination of optical and multispectral imagery, thermal data and synthetic aperture radar. The system analyses physical changes across 10-metre sections of the Earth’s surface and allows users to compare selected years between 2017 and 2025.

In Gaza, historical imagery and current mapping can be used to examine changes to built-up areas and other parts of the landscape. Google says the tool is intended to help users identify locations where significant change occurred before examining the underlying historical imagery in greater detail.

The imagery is therefore a visual tool rather than a casualty or damage assessment.

UN Documents Damage

The United Nations has separately documented extensive damage across Gaza.

In its August humanitarian situation report, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said military activity was continuing across the Gaza Strip, with airstrikes, shelling, gunfire and naval fire reported during the reporting period. It said overall structural damage continued to rise, according to a new assessment.

OCHA also reported damage to civilian and medical infrastructure. On August 2, a strike near Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah damaged a medical storage facility and destroyed essential medical supplies, while the hospital itself sustained minor damage.

The UN report said nearly the entire population of Gaza, estimated at 2.1 million people, remained concentrated in less than half of the territory amid overcrowded conditions.

Death Toll

The physical destruction comes alongside a large reported civilian death toll.

The Gaza Ministry of Health’s in a report on Sunday put the number of Palestinians killed since October 7, 2023, at 74,018, with 175,079 injured. The ministry said two people were killed and 11 injured during the preceding 48 hours.

The overall figure and said 1,417 Palestinians had been killed and 4,964 injured since the ceasefire that began on October 11, 2025. It added that 834 bodies had been recovered during that period, while others remained trapped under rubble or on roads.

Destruction Beyond Buildings

The impact documented by the UN extends beyond visible damage to buildings.

OCHA said explosive ordnance contamination is widespread across Gaza after years of fighting. Mine-action teams had identified and marked 1,052 explosive ordnance items since October 2023 and conducted 3,199 explosive-hazard assessments covering nine square kilometres cumulatively.

The UN also recorded 580 explosive-ordnance-related accidents that killed 274 people and injured 1,134 since October 2023.

Google’s new change-detection system provides an additional visual method for examining how Gaza’s physical landscape has changed. The broader picture, however, comes from combining that imagery with humanitarian assessments, health data and ground-level documentation rather than treating satellite images alone as a measure of the war’s human cost.