Oscar-winning Hollywood star Angelina Jolie posted updated satellite images from the Gaza Strip on Instagram overnight Saturday into Sunday, pointing followers to imagery available through Google Earth and calling attention to the scale of destruction in the territory.
“You can now open Google Earth and see what was done to Gaza,” Jolie wrote, saying entire neighborhoods had been destroyed and that homes, schools, universities, hospitals, roads, water and sanitation systems and other infrastructure people relied on for survival had been damaged or destroyed.
‘The destruction is visible’: Angelina Jolie goes viral with Gaza Google Earth post
(Photo: Instagram)
As of Sunday morning, the post had received about 814,000 likes and more than 23,000 comments.
Jolie cited UN satellite analysis saying that as of June 16, 2026, 82% of Gaza’s structures had been damaged, with about two-thirds of the damaged buildings assessed as destroyed. She added that 1.98 million people, or 94% of Gaza’s population, require shelter assistance and essential items as winter approaches.
She also said humanitarian aid and shelter materials continue to face restrictions and delays, arguing that the satellite imagery provides an unusually clear view of the physical devastation but cannot convey what it means for civilians to live amid it, what happened to families who were killed or what daily life is like for those who survived.
Jolie called for shelter to reach civilians before winter, humanitarian assistance to be delivered at the scale required and medical supplies to reach hospitals. She also said conditions must be created to allow civilians to rebuild their homes, schools, hospitals and communities.
“The destruction is visible. The needs are known,” she wrote, concluding that the question now is whether those needs will be met.
Jolie tagged the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and humanitarian aid organization INARA. She did not mention Israel or the war in the post.
The actress has repeatedly spoken out over the war in Gaza and has been involved in humanitarian activity for years. In January, she visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing as part of what was described as a humanitarian tour for Gaza residents.
Angelina Jolie during a visit to the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing
(Video: Reuters)
Arab media reported at the time that Jolie arrived accompanied by a representative of the U.S. State Department and the governor of Egypt’s North Sinai province. Egyptian reports said the visit was intended to examine aid options and the situation at Al-Arish Hospital.
The visit took place about a month before the Rafah crossing reopened and also included Egypt’s migration minister.
Jolie had previously sharply criticized Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in the opening weeks of the war following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre. In a November 2023 Instagram post, she accused Israel of deliberately bombing a trapped population with nowhere to flee and described Gaza as an open-air prison rapidly becoming a mass grave.