The Gaza Strip has almost exactly the same land area as Las Vegas but more than three times the population. Its largest city, Gaza City, is more tightly packed than New York City, with more than 650,000 people living within its 18 square miles.
Gaza City is within an evacuation zone that Israel ordered on Friday ahead of an expected ground invasion. About a million people in the Gaza Strip — half of its residents — are believed to have been displaced, according to a United Nations update published Monday.
Israel began a barrage of airstrikes after an Oct. 7 surprise attack by Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip. About 1,300 Israelis have been killed and more than 4,100 injured, according to official Israeli sources cited in the U.N. update. A Hamas official claimed the group also took more than 200 hostages. The same update cites more than 2,800 Palestinian deaths and 12,000 injuries in Gaza and the West Bank, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.
Food, water, fuel and medical supplies were running dangerously low in Gaza as of Tuesday, the seventh day of an electricity blackout. All three border crossings into the Gaza Strip remained closed.
Population data for U.S. cities is from the U.S. Census Bureau. Data for Gaza is from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Built-up area data is from Microsoft.
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