Israel announced this Saturday (26) that it has resumed airlifting food supplies to Gaza and that on Sunday (27) it will pause humanitarian aid to allow for the distribution of aid by land.
The announcement came amid international pressure due to the humanitarian crisis facing residents of the enclave, controlled by the terrorist group Hamas (read more below).
In March, humanitarian aid entry into Gaza was completely blocked. Since May, this support has been concentrated on the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a controversial organization supported by Israel and criticized by the UN.
According to the Israeli military, the airdropped food supply would include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food provided by international organizations, the military added in a statement.
Airdrops are not the most appropriate method of humanitarian aid because they have a limited impact and are not guaranteed to actually reach the local population, according to experts. The UN says the best way to help Palestinians is to remove all ground blockades to aid.
The humanitarian pause will be implemented this Sunday (27) in support centers and humanitarian corridors, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
UN says situation in Gaza is a ‘horror show’
he resumption of air aid permission comes at a time of worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with growing malnutrition and widespread hunger among the two million Palestinians.
The UN describes the current situation as a “horror show.” More than 100 specialized NGOs report “mass famine” in the territory.
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Reports of extreme and widespread hunger have become more frequent, and at least 45 people have died of starvation in Gaza since the beginning of this week, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
“‘The people in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses,’ a colleague in Gaza told me this morning,” said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, on Thursday (24).
A video released by Reuters on Thursday showed Palestinian children being treated for severe malnutrition at a hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza. The World Food Program (WFP), the United Nations’ food arm, said on Friday (25) that nearly a third of the Palestinian population “has not eaten for days at a time.”
The Netanyahu government blames the UN and the terrorist group Hamas for preventing food from reaching the Palestinian population.
Israel’s military operation in Gaza has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry. The group’s terrorist attack on Israel in 2023 left 1,200 dead – most of them civilians – and 250 people were taken hostage.
