Thread by @HowidyHamza

🧵 THREAD: Israel just announced Gaza merchants can bring aid for the first time since March. Here's the full context behind this development:

1/ Israel's government announced they'll allow Gaza merchants to bring aid into the Strip for the first time since March. Here's the background and numbers that explain what this really means.

2/ On March 2nd, Israel cut off ALL aid after Hamas rejected extending the ceasefire. They wanted to move to phase 2 as originally planned, but Israel wanted to keep extending phase 1. So Israel just stopped everything. That's 5 months ago.

3/ before the war, Gaza used to feed itself. In just 140 square miles housing 2.3 million people, they were self-sufficient in vegetables, eggs, milk, poultry, and fish. Almost half their land was farms. They had 7,000 greenhouses and made $44.6 million selling produce annually.

4/ For imports, 100-104 food trucks came in daily - one every 14 minutes according to UN data. Total trucks including everything else was 500-600 per day. Two-thirds of food came from imports, the rest from local farms.

5/ In just 22 months of war, Israel has transformed a functioning society into rubble. Hebrew University satellite data shows 70% of ALL buildings destroyed. Rafah: 89% gone. Northern Gaza: 84% gone. Gaza City: 78% gone. Researchers say this destruction exceeds what they've seen in Syria and Chechnya.

6/ The pace of destruction has actually accelerated. Between April-July 2025 alone, the Israeli army demolished 12,800 more buildings in Rafah. That's 2,000 buildings every month. Entire towns like Khuza'a completely erased - Israeli commanders literally said it "no longer exists."

7/ UN satellite analysis shows 95% of farmland unusable. 80% of trees destroyed, 71% of greenhouses demolished, 83% of water wells damaged. In a territory smaller than most cities, they've wiped out an entire agricultural system.

8/ The economic devastation: $30 billion in damage - that's 97% of Gaza's entire economy. Recovery will take over 70 years. Think about that - three generations to rebuild what was destroyed in under two years

9/ The livestock devastation: WHO reports 96% of cattle dead, 99% of poultry dead. 60,000 sheep and goats killed. All 20,000 beehives destroyed. What survived: is less than 36% of sheep, 39% of goats, 3.8% of cattle.

10/ Food trucks collapsed from 500+ daily to just 28 per day according to humanitarian organizations. Since March, Israel allowed only 2% of needed food. Gaza Health Ministry reports 169 people starved to death including 93 kids.

11/ UN data shows over 1,000 Palestinians shot while seeking food since May. They're shooting starving people in a space smaller than most cities. 1.9 million homeless with nowhere to go.

12/ So this is the context behind today's announcement. After destroying a functioning society and 169 starvation deaths, Israel is now allowing some merchants to bring aid. It's a step, but the question remains whether it can meaningfully help the 2.3 million people still there.