Efforts of Western and some Mideast regional countries like Jordan to alleviate famine in Gaza largely failed during initial airdrops over the Strip which occurred in 2024.
Food and medicine air drops proved more dangerous than conventional delivery utilizing trucks crossing land routes, as in some instances large aid crates fell on make-shift homes and tents, crushing and at times injuring or killing people.
There were also instances of drowning as aid was dropped into the sea during the 2024 efforts. For example a single day in March of last year saw 18 people die trying to desperately access the aid.
But given that at this point scores of people are dying each day from hunger, air drops are increasingly a risk everyone (or Western countries) is willing to take – even as Israel’s military is still exercising a tight grip on what aid is allowed into Gaza and who distributes it.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is among those organizing a renewed air drop operation, and he also wants to evacuate injured Palestinian children.
He spoke over the weekend to his French and German counterparts, British and international media reports indicated:
But this has served to renew the controversy surrounding aid delivery methods and air drops – also after Biden’s Army-constructed floating pier fiasco.
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini has dismissed new talk of aid airdrops as a “distraction & smokescreen” and is once again pleading with Israel to “open the gates” to trucks instead.
“Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient & can even kill starving civilians,” Lazzarini posted on X.
Yesterday, 13 people drowned whilst trying to reach aid that fell into the Gaza Sea 💔💔
These airdrops are inhumane.#GazaGenocide #GazaHolocaust #IsraeliApartheid #IsraeliWarCrimes #IsraeliNewNazism pic.twitter.com/jJPc6OydPE
— 🔻 (@xeeebra) March 26, 2024
“Airdrops will not prevent aid diversion, principled humanitarian assistance will. It reaches those in need,” Lazzarini added, noting that UNRWA currently has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks in Jordan and Egypt waiting for the green light to enter Gaza.
Israel and its US ally have long accused Hamas and Palestinian factions of looting the aid and subsequently reselling it – a charge which the Palestinian side has frequently denied. The IDF stands accused of in essence operating an open-air prison from which civilians cannot possibly hope to escape, as the war rages on.
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