Gaza: The focus on air drops into Gaza is a "grotesque distraction" that will not reverse the territory's deepening starvation crisis, aid agency leaders have warned. Israel's military announced early Sunday that it had airdropped humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and declared humanitarian corridors for UN aid convoys.
According to BBC, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Jordan are expected to conduct air drops in the coming days. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also stated that the British government is committing "everything we can" to get aid to Gaza via air drops. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry reported an additional five deaths due to malnutrition on Saturday, bringing the total to 127 since the war began, including 85 children.
The World Food Programme has highlighted that one in three Gazans are not eating for days, with 90,000 women and children in urgent need of treatment in what it described as a "man-made mass starvation." The debate over air drops has primarily arisen due to the failure of aid to enter Gaza through traditional land routes.
The head of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa, Philippe Lazzarini, noted that air drops are "expensive, inefficient, and can even kill starving civilians" if they go awry. Lazzarini revealed that his organization has "the equivalent of 6,000 trucks" in Jordan and Egypt, waiting for the "green light" to enter Gaza. He emphasized that political will is required to "lift the siege, open the gates, and guarantee safe movements and dignified access to people in need."
Israel has announced the establishment of "designated humanitarian corridors" to enable the safe movement of UN convoys delivering food and medicine but has not specified their locations or operations. Israel maintains there are no restrictions on aid entering Gaza, while the UN counters that Israel is obstructing aid collection through bureaucratic obstacles. Hamas denies accusations of aid theft, with a USAID report finding no evidence of systematic looting.
In the past, Western and Arab governments have attempted air drops into Gaza. Last year, Britain's Royal Air Force delivered 110 tonnes of aid over 10 drops as part of a Jordanian-led international air coalition. However, aid agencies argue that these quantities are insufficient to alleviate the starvation risks in Gaza. BBC analysis indicates that around 160 planes would be needed to provide a single meal for each of Gaza's two million residents.
Several aid groups have warned about the dangers of dropping thousands of tonnes of food onto densely populated Gaza. Shaina Low of the Norwegian Refugee Council reported incidents of people drowning while attempting to collect aid blown into the Mediterranean and boxes injuring people as they fell. Even when successful, air drops caused chaos, with people fighting over aid and getting injured.
Palestinians in Gaza are also battling dehydration. A mother described living conditions with no food or water, expressing desperation for even water. Israel's war in Gaza began in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in about 1,200 deaths and 251 hostages. Since then, more than 59,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Israel imposed a total blockade on aid deliveries at the start of March, resuming its military offensive against Hamas two weeks later, collapsing a two-month ceasefire. Although the blockade was partially eased amid famine warnings from global experts, shortages of food, medicine, and fuel have worsened, with most of Gaza's population displaced multiple times and over 90% of homes damaged or destroyed.
