Satellite imagery has revealed the catastrophic damage done to the areas surrounding an aid depot where Israel has staged tightly controlled media visits.
The ABC was granted access to the Kerem Shalom aid depot by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Wednesday.
It was the first time our correspondents have been able to enter Gaza since the start of the war, despite repeated requests.
Israel controls the crossings into Gaza and does not allow international media outlets to independently enter the strip.
The ABC's access to Kerem Shalom was tightly controlled. But satellite imagery shows what can't be seen from the site.
Aid stockpile increased from May
The Kerem Shalom aid depot is in Gaza's southern corner, on the border with Israel.
The latest satellite imagery we have was taken on August 1, taken by satellite imagery company Planet Labs.
Trucks, likely used to transport supplies inside Gaza, can be seen in the image.
Further inside Gaza, videos showing aid trucks being swarmed by crowds, as they seek to deliver aid, have been posted online in recent weeks.
Piles of aid can be seen at the site — these were also seen on the ground by the ABC's Middle East correspondent, Matthew Doran, who was allowed to film in the central section of the site.
ABC NEWS Verify has taken one satellite image from each month this year, and stitched them together in a time-lapse.
Boxes of aid are visible in January and February. But in March and April, after a temporary ceasefire fell apart and aid stopped entering Gaza, little can be seen at the site.
By late May, aid can again be seen — corresponding with the opening of aid distribution sites by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-US-backed organisation that has attracted controversy and criticism.
The amount of aid at the site, and the exact location of boxes, varies across the images, but more can be seen from May onwards.
What can't be seen from the depot
In his report from the site, our correspondent referenced the city of Rafah, which is located north of the Kerem Shalom depot.
In 2024, Israel began an offensive in the city despite estimates at the time from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees that 1.4 million Palestinians — two-thirds of Gaza's population — were sheltering there.
The image on the left was taken before the October 7 attacks in 2023, which killed an estimated 1,200 people in Israel, with some 250 taken hostage by terror group Hamas.
The image on the right was taken last month, showing there is not much left of Gaza's southernmost city.
Further north, the damage to the neighbourhood of Tel al-Sultan is clear.
The first image was taken before October 7, and the second was taken last month.
Imagery captures desperation
Israel is allowing access to the Kerem Shalom depot as it pushes its argument it is letting aid into Gaza — especially since it eased aid restrictions in late July.
"The humanitarian aid is sitting in the sun waiting for the UN and international organisations to come and pick it up," the Israeli military posted in a video shot in the same location.
The need for aid is easy to see in this image taken above one of the aid distribution sites run by the GHF.
Taken on July 18, it shows a mass of people at the site trying to secure aid.
The reality of the conditions being faced by Palestinians in Gaza is evident in an area west of the city of Khan Younis.
In the area surrounding Al-Aqsa University's Khan Younis campus, tents take up most available space — all the way to the waterline.
The imagery shows just how Palestinians have been squeezed into a space, as other areas are deemed military zones by the IDF.
