Tel Aviv, July 29, (dpa/GNA) – Humanitarian aid was dropped into the Gaza Strip from the air for the second consecutive day on Monday, with some 20 pallets of food parachuted into the blockaded coastal area from Jordanian and Emirati aircraft, the Israeli military said.
The air drop is part of a “series of actions aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip,” the military said in a statement.
The air drops were preceded by another 180 aid lorries entering Gaza on Monday, COGAT, the Israeli military authority responsible for approving and coordinating aid transports, wrote on X.
That came after 120 lorries entered Gaza on Sunday, the first time in months that Israel had allowed large-scale imports of aid into the sealed-off territory.
The air drop was carried out in cooperation with Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, according to an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement, and was destined for both southern and northern Gaza.
“The IDF will continue to work in order to improve the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip, along with the international community, while refuting the false claims of deliberate starvation in Gaza,” it wrote.
Germany also announced plans to establish an airlift to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza with the support of Jordan.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday that the operation is set to begin “immediately.”
Defence Minister Boris Pistorius will work closely with France and the United Kingdom, both of which have expressed willingness to join the effort to transport food and aid, Merz said.
“We know this can only be a small help for the people in Gaza,” the chancellor said. “But at least it is a contribution that we are glad to make.”
The world has been outraged by the photos of starving Gazans and reports of dozens of deaths due to hunger. The deliveries are urgently needed for Gaza’s civilian population, which aid organizations say is facing unprecedented levels of hunger amid the ongoing Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher told the BBC that “quite a bit of food” was brought into Gaza on Sunday but added that “lots of that got looted.”
While welcoming the new aid, he said the deliveries were a “drop in the ocean” compared to what was needed, stressing the next few days were essential for the well-being of Gazans.
However, the aid organization Doctors Without Borders sharply criticized the dropping of aid supplies.
This method is not only ineffective, but also poses a danger to the people waiting on the ground, said Jean Guy Vataux, the organization’s emergency coordinator in the Gaza Strip.
“Using airdrops for the delivery of humanitarian aid is a futile initiative that smacks of cynicism,” he said in a statement.
It is much more effective to bring aid supplies to the coastal area by truck, Vataux explained.
“All that is needed is for Israeli authorities to decide to facilitate its arrival — expedite the clearance procedures, allow the entry of goods at scale, and coordinate to permit safe collection and delivery. Only then can we begin to resolve the starvation we are seeing,” he said.
International aid agencies consider air drops ineffective and costly, due to the relatively small quantities delivered and the precarious situation in the area, especially compared to the transport of aid via lorries.
GNA