Israel resumes airdrop aid to Gaza but UN aid agency calls move a 'distraction'
The military also said Saturday that it had connected a power line to a desalination plant, expected to supply daily water needs for about 900,000 Gazans.
Aid organisations cast doubt over effectiveness of airdrops Humanitarian chiefs are deeply sceptical that airdrops can deliver enough food to tackle the deepening hunger crisis facing Gaza's more than two million inhabitants. They are instead demanding that Israel allow more overland convoys. A number of Western and Arab governments carried out air drops 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," said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. "They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians."
"It is a distraction & screensmoke," Lazzarini said in a post on X.
Israel imposed a total blockade on the entry of aid into Gaza on 2 March after talks to extend a ceasefire in the over 21-month-old conflict broke down. In late May, it began letting a trickle of aid enter. Israel's military insists it does not limit the number of trucks going into the Gaza Strip, and alleges that UN agencies and relief groups are not collecting the aid once it is inside the territory. But humanitarian organisations accuse the Israeli army of imposing excessive restrictions, while tightly controlling road access within Gaza.
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7NEWS
6 hours ago
- 7NEWS
Palestinians continue to die by Israeli fire as war in Gaza drags on
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ABC News
8 hours ago
- ABC News
BTN Newsbreak 31/07/2025
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ABC News
8 hours ago
- ABC News
Why this image of an emaciated Gazan boy sparked controversy
The image of a skeletal one-year-old Gazan boy wearing a bin-bag nappy and cradled in his mother's arms shocked the world about the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The picture of Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq appeared prominently on the front page of The New York Times on the weekend with the headline 'Young, old and sick starve to death in Gaza'. It was then widely republished by major media outlets, including the ABC, BBC, CNN, Sky News, and The Guardian, and the distressing image reverberated through Australia's political echelons too, drawing commentary from Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. But questions about the photo and the child's underlying medical condition have shone a light on the difficulty of gathering and telling stories inside the besieged Gaza Strip. 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This included 24 children under the age of five, a child over five, and 37 adults. "Most of these people were declared dead on arrival at health facilities or died shortly after, their bodies showing clear signs of severe wasting," the WHO said in a statement on Monday. "The crisis remains entirely preventable. Deliberate blocking and delay of large-scale food, health, and humanitarian aid has cost many lives." On Tuesday, the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) issued an alert that corroborated almost everything humanitarian agencies had been saying for months. "The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip," it said. From March until May, after the ceasefire collapsed, Israel blocked all aid from entering Gaza. This past week, the WHO described the events inside the Palestinian enclave as "man-made starvation," which Israel has rejected. For nearly two years, reports from the besieged territory have explained how medical care for the most vulnerable has nearly completely ceased. The ABC has covered these cases in detail over that time. Freelance journalists engaged by the ABC during the past two years have also conveyed their own struggles around securing access to food. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to deny that there is starvation in Gaza. But even his closest ally, United States President Donald Trump, acknowledges "real starvation" is hitting Gaza. The freelance photographer behind the viral image, Ahmeed al-Arini, gathered the image for Turkish media outlet Anadolu Agency. It was then distributed to media organisations via the reputable photo wire service, Getty Images. Ahmeed al-Arini explained to the BBC how he came across the boy and his family. "He was with his mother in a tent, which is absolutely bare, bar a little oven. It resembles a tomb, really. And I took this photo because I wanted to show the rest of the world extreme hunger that babies and children are suffering from in the Gaza Strip," he said. "He'd received no baby milk, no formula, no vitamins either." Anadolu Agency also published an interview with Muhammad's doctor, Suzan Mohammed Marouf, a nutrition specialist at The Patient's Friends Benevolent Society Hospital (PFBS) in Gaza. Dr Marouf said the child was brought to the hospital a month ago and diagnosed with moderate malnutrition on top of congenital health problems and muscle atrophy. "The medical issues he had weren't significantly affecting his weight," Dr Marouf told the news organisation. "But once the siege and the closure of crossings depleted hospitals' medicine stocks and nutritional supplements, Mohammad's condition deteriorated to acute malnutrition," she added. ABC has also contacted Anadolu Agency, which has said Muhammad's mother has confirmed he has previous health complications, and she has also provided past photos of her son before his deterioration, which she says was from a shortage of food and milk. Since the war started, Israel has blocked the access of international journalists into Gaza and continues to deny repeated requests to let foreign media in. It means major news organisations, including the ABC, are reliant on the help of local Palestinian journalists, who themselves are suffering under nearly two years of war. Recently, they have told ABC of their own struggles for survival and the crippling shortage of food in Gaza. Repeated calls to allow foreign press into the Strip have been made since October 7. Amid the escalating humanitarian situation, those appeals to the Israeli government have grown louder in the past fortnight. In a statement, ABC news director Justin Stevens said: "The ABC calls on Israel to again allow international journalists to report independently from Gaza, to allow all journalists to move in and out of Gaza, and to ensure journalists in Gaza are safe." At least 186 journalists and media workers, mostly Palestinian, who have been gathering evidence of the war inside Gaza have been killed since October 7, according to the Committee for Protecting Journalists.
