Three years on, Gaza's landmarks, stadiums and streets have been erased from the map entirely

From the Newshound archive · first published 11 October 2026.

Satellite imagery updated by Google Maps this week lays bare the scale of Gaza's destruction after three years of war: entire towns reduced to rubble, mosques and hospitals gone, and a once-populated coastline now packed with tents. More than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed, including 21,000 children, while Israel suffered 1,200 dead in Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack. Residents say the destruction has erased the very landmarks by which people navigated daily life. The Palestine Olympic Committee reports over 1,000 people from Gaza's sporting community have been killed, with 70 per cent of sports facilities destroyed.

Al Helal Football Academy, which sent an under-16 team to Ireland a decade ago, has lost 10 boys killed in the war, its beachfront astroturf pitch now a pile of sand and rubble.

A young player named Omar al-Jamasi was carrying a handwritten note of a debt he owed a friend when he was killed in March 2025, six months before the current ceasefire was agreed.