Food Airdropped into Gaza as Starvation Deaths Rise

Yomiuri Shimbun

5 days ago

JERUSALEM – Airdrops of food have resumed in Gaza, said Israel and the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, as deaths from starvation in the besieged enclave spread.
Pallets of flour, sugar and canned food were dropped, the Israeli military said. The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, which has been involved in previous airdrops, said, 'We will ensure essential aid reaches those most in need, whether through land, air or sea.'
A growing group of governments has volunteered to join airdrop missions into Gaza immediately to relieve the deepening crisis, but aid agencies have described the approach as an inadequate response and an Israeli attempt to whitewash a policy of deliberate starvation. The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday called that a 'false claim.'
Israel said in a written statement it would also establish humanitarian corridors to 'enable the safe movement of UN convoys delivering food and medicine to the population,' an apparent reversal of the Netanyahu government's policy of restricting U.N. operations in the enclave.
Israel is under blistering international criticism for its blockade of Gaza as images of dead and malnourished Palestinian children circulate around the world. Israel blocked aid from entering the enclave in March and has restricted food distribution by U.N. agencies since May.
Israeli officials say U.N. aid often falls into the hands of Hamas militants. U.N. and U.S. officials have rejected the claim. Still, Israel allowed aid to enter in late May, in a system run by the U.S.-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Critics say the aid has been insufficient to the need; distribution has been marred by violence. Roughly a thousand people seeking help have been shot to death, allegedly by Israeli forces, near distribution sites.
With conditions worsening, foreign officials say, they need to resort to airdrops, a costly and inefficient means of delivery.
'Jordan is ready to help the people in Gaza by any means, whether it's land convoys or airdrops or anything,' said a Jordanian official, who, like others in this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. 'People are hungry.'
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the country was 'working urgently with the Jordanian authorities to get British aid onto planes and into Gaza.'
'The images of starvation and desperation in Gaza are utterly horrifying,' Starmer wrote Friday in the Mirror newspaper. 'News that Israel will allow countries to airdrop aid into Gaza has come far too late – but we will do everything we can to get aid in via this route.'
Starmer discussed airdrops in phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the British government said. 'The three leaders talked about the situation in Gaza, which they agreed is appalling,' the government said in a statement. 'The Prime Minister set out how the UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to air drop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance.'
Macron said Thursday that France would recognize a Palestinian state. On Monday, more than two dozen mostly European countries condemned Israel's restrictions on aid shipments and the killings of Palestinians trying to reach food.
Germany and Spain are considering joining the effort, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions. The foreign ministry of France, which has participated in previous airdrops, did not respond to requests for comment.
The first airdrop on Saturday was 'aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip, and to refute the false claim of deliberate starvation in the Gaza Strip,' the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
An Israeli military official, speaking to reporters, acknowledged this week that Gaza was facing a 'lack of food security' but denied there was famine.
Airdrops could offer an emergency stopgap to those on the verge of death, aid professionals say, but they're unlikely to provide more than a small fraction of the daily needs of a population of more than 2 million people, many of whom are on the edge of starvation.
Nearly a third of Gazans had not eaten for several days, the U.N.'s World Food Program said this week. More than 62,000 metric tons of food are required every month to cover basic humanitarian needs, the U.N. said Friday.
That's about 120 trucks per day. Nearly 600 trucks were sent into Gaza in the past week, the Israeli military said Saturday, or about 85 per day.
Humanitarian and military analysts say airdrops should be used only as a last resort, in areas that are otherwise inaccessible. It's unclear what type of aircraft will be used. A C-130 plane can carry about 14 tons of aid; some trucks can carry more than 25.
Jordan has coordinated hundreds of airdrop missions since the start of the war in October 2023 using its own planes as well as ones from the United Arab Emirates and France, but missions have been criticized for dropping food in the ocean and crushing people to death. In one instance, a pallet crashed through a roof and killed five.
Critics say airdrops could cause more chaos, injuries or death, and it's not clear why dropping food from a plane makes it less likely to be stolen by Hamas.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. agency for Palestinians, said streamlining truck distribution would be far more efficient.
'Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation,' he wrote on X. 'They are expensive, inefficient & can even kill starving civilians. It is a distraction & screensmoke. A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the siege.'
Right-wing politicians in Israel have long criticized U.N. agencies for allegedly aiding Palestinian militants. Calls within Israel to dismantle U.N.-led aid distribution in Gaza have grown during the war.
U.N. officials and Western diplomats routinely dispute the allegations. A bureau of the U.S. Agency for International Development has found no evidence of systematic theft by Hamas of U.S.-funded humanitarian supplies, Reuters reported Friday.
Hamas-led fighters attacked communities and a music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 more back to Gaza as hostages. Israel responded with a military campaign that has flattened much of the enclave, displaced nearly the entire population and killed more than 59,700 people.
After Israel's barring of nearly all food and medical supplies into Gaza in early March, some delivery resumed in late May. Most has been through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a group created by former CIA officials and headquartered in Delaware. Israel has allowed the foundation to move aid into Gaza more easily than U.N. agencies.
Much of the aid is dried food that requires water and fuel to cook. Both are in short supply after Israel targeted water infrastructure in Gaza.
The foundation was initially supposed to vet recipients to prevent aid from falling into the hands of Hamas, according to its early plans, but in practice, it has left packets of food in open fields for civilians to pick up.
Distribution sites have frequently seen stampedes as the parents of starving children fight for food. Israeli soldiers have shot into the crowds with guns, witnesses say. Israeli military officials say they are reviewing incidents of alleged shooting and acknowledge that its soldiers fire 'warning shots' at approaching crowds.
The foundation has delivered 90 million meals in the past two months – less than a meal per day per person.
The foundation, backed by Israel and the Trump administration, and U.N. agencies in recent weeks have accused each other of being responsible for the starvation crisis.
The foundation and Israeli officials say the U.N. has left aid sitting at the Gaza border, and whatever convoys it dispatches are mobbed by civilians as soon as they enter Gaza. The foundation, whose convoys are escorted by armed mercenaries, said this week it had said it would deliver the U.N. food packages free of charge, but the offer hasn't been accepted.
The World Food Program on Friday released a list of obstacles to its work, including the difficulty of getting spare parts into Gaza for its trucks and the dearth of drivers approved by Israel to carry food into the enclave.
The U.N. agency had requested permission for 138 aid convoys to collect cargo from the holding area, it said, but Israel approved only 76. After the trucks were loaded, the agency said, convoys waited up to 46 hours for permission to travel along a few approved routes.
'Each delay to aid convoys entering Gaza means more starving people gathering along known routes hoping to intercept trucks transporting food assistance,' the agency said in a statement. 'When aid trucks are held at checkpoints or rerouted multiple times, WFP teams and crowding civilians are exposed to significant risk: active hostilities, drone surveillance, sniper fire, and bombardments.'