Satellite Images Show Israeli Military Positions in Areas of Khan Younis and Rafah Previously Used as Civilian Sites

Satellite images updated on Google Earth and captured on February 25, 2026, show the Sheikh Mohammed cemetery in the Maan area of Khan Younis transformed into an Israeli military outpost with tents and armoured vehicles. Palestinian journalist Muhannad Qishta said he cannot visit the graves of his sisters Reem and Walaa because the cemetery no longer exists on the map.

“Even the dead have not been spared from this war,” Qishta stated.

High-resolution pictures from the same date show entire neighbourhoods in Gaza reduced to ash, with the surviving population in encampments on Mediterranean beaches. Israeli forces have fully or partially destroyed 94 percent of Gaza’s cemeteries, according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

In Rafah, the Saudi neighbourhood in Tal as-Sultan, a 752-unit housing project, has been flattened into rubble.

The Swedish village in Rafah, founded in 1965 and home to roughly 1,300 people whose economy was based on fishing, now contains only five houses standing and functions as an Israeli military outpost. The Rafah border crossing’s civilian infrastructure, including passenger halls, VIP terminal, logistics facility, and administrative offices, has been replaced by Israeli military observation posts and razor wire.

Eastern neighbourhoods of Bani Suhaila, Abasan, and al-Zana in Khan Younis, previously home to nearly 120,000 residents, have been largely emptied after bombardment and demolition.

Hamad City in Khan Younis, a $135 million Qatari-funded project with 53 five-story buildings containing approximately 3,000 housing units and over 15,000 residents, has been reduced to rubble. More than 97 percent of schools in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to UNICEF, leaving 658,000 children without formal learning for more than two years.

The Islamic University of Gaza, which had over 20,000 students, Al-Azhar University, which enrolled more than 16,000 students, and Al-Israa University in southern Gaza have each been completely levelled.

Less than five percent of Gaza’s agricultural land remains usable, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. 3 million Palestinians in Gaza are internally displaced and that 60 percent of the population has lost their homes completely. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in a leaked video aired on Channel 12 on May 28 or 29, 2026: “At this point, we are fully in control of 60 percent of the territory of the Gaza Strip … and my directive is to get to … 70 percent.

-brokered ceasefire established in October 2025 included a “Yellow Line” demarcating occupied areas. In mid-March 2026 the Israeli army distributed maps to aid organisations showing seizure of 64 percent of Gaza territory. An Al Jazeera tally recorded at least 2,400 Israeli violations of the ceasefire between October 2025 and April 2026.

Nickolay Mladenov warned the UN Security Council last week that Gaza’s status quo risks becoming permanent. ” She added that many families return with empty pots from soup kitchens.