Israeli aid airdrop injures Palestinians in north Gaza; Hamas condemns move
The Israeli military on Saturday announced that it 'carried out an airdrop of humanitarian aid as part of the ongoing efforts to allow and facilitate the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip'.
But local sources in Gaza told Al Jazeera some of the aid pallets hit tents near al-Rasheed Road, a main road that runs along the coast of the enclave from north to south.
Many other pallets were dropped in areas far from the displacement sites in northern Gaza and close to where the Israeli military is stationed.
Meanwhile, after months of international pressure, the Israeli military on Sunday began a daily 'tactical pause' of its operations in parts of Gaza and established new aid corridors.
The Palestinian group Hamas said it considers Israel's airdrop operations and limited humanitarian corridors in Gaza a 'symbolic, deceptive move aimed at whitewashing its image before the world'.
In a statement on Sunday, Hamas said Israel is 'deflecting international demands to lift the siege and end the starvation campaign against Palestinians', calling it part of 'a calculated policy to manage famine, impose coercive realities, and subject civilians to danger and humiliation'.
'The arrival of food and medicine to Gaza is not a favour, it is a natural right and an urgent necessity to stop the catastrophe imposed by the Nazi-like occupation,' Hamas said.
Hamas also held Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 'directly responsible' for policies that have led to mass civilian deaths, calling his handling of aid and the starvation deaths of Palestinians 'clear-cut war crimes'.
Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said airdrops carried out in the past in Gaza 'were not effective, they did not reach enough people, let alone the chaos and violence they have caused'.
'The airdrops confirm what we have reported in the past – that Gaza has turned into a testing lab and the Israeli military is experimenting with every attack, every policy,' he said.
Aid agencies said they are deeply sceptical that airdrops could deliver enough food safely to tackle a deepening hunger crisis facing Gaza's more than two million inhabitants while also calling it a 'grotesque distraction'.
A number of Western and Arab governments carried out airdrops in Gaza in 2024 when aid deliveries by land also faced Israeli restrictions, but many in the humanitarian community consider them ineffective.
'Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation,' Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on Saturday. 'They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians.'
But British Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the idea last week, promising to work with Jordan to restart airdrops. The United Arab Emirates also said it would resume airdrops 'immediately'.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza has gravely deteriorated in recent days, and more than 100 NGOs warned that 'mass starvation' was spreading in Gaza.
Israel's military claims it does not limit the number of aid trucks going into Gaza and alleges that UN agencies and relief groups are not collecting aid once it is inside the territory.
But humanitarian organisations accuse the army of imposing excessive restrictions while tightly controlling road access within Gaza.
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