Name: Airdrops: A distraction from what is happening and really needed in Gaza? | DW News
Uploaded: 2025-07-27T17:27:16.000Z
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Israel and several other countries have carried out airdrops of aid packages over Gaza.

The Israeli military says it will open corridors to allow the safe movement of supply convoys.

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It also announced a so-called tactical pause in its military activity in three areas and along corridors for several hours daily.

The Israeli government has come under mounting international condemnation for the worsening situation in Gaza, though it denies UN claims of mass starvation.

Trucks carrying aid slowly enter Gaza at the Rafah crossing on the border of Egypt.

International pressure has been mounting on Israel to relieve the growing hunger crisis that humanitarian agencies say is reaching critical levels.

The IDF says it has started to airdrop food packages over Gaza in coordination with international organizations.

But the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees says the action is inefficient and could, quote, even kill starving civilians.

When aid is airdropped, it causes injuries and damage.

We wake up in the morning and try to get aid.

We should get it through a legitimate way, from an NGO like UNRWA.

If one, two or ten boxes are dropped, not everyone can reach them.

Only one or two percent of the people get the aid.

Palestinians across the territory face the daily plight to feed their families.

Supplies are running low at charity kitchens, like this one in Gaza City.

My child has become unrecognizable from hunger.

We want this war to end so we can live our lives.

Infants die the moment they come out of their mothers' wounds.

Israel announced what it is calling daily tactical pauses in its attacks on certain areas of Gaza.

They will also establish corridors for the UN and aid agencies to bring humanitarian assistance to civilians.

But a bombardment of the north of the territory on the same day is a reminder that the fighting is not over.

And for more on this, I'd like to welcome Juliet Tuma, UNRWA Director of Communications, who joins us from Amman.

Juliet, aid trucks started entering Gaza through the Rafah border a few hours ago.

All this comes after weeks of mounting international pressure and warnings of starvation in Gaza.

Give us a sense of how critical this aid is and the relief people in Gaza must be feeling.

Our trucks, 6,000 of them, continue to be stranded in Egypt.

They are loaded with food and medicines and medical supplies and hygiene supplies.

These must go into Gaza as soon as possible.

Only then will we start seeing progress and a bit of hope and improvement for the starving population inside the Gaza Strip.

As far as you know, what is holding up those trucks that you just made reference to?

We've been waiting for nearly five months for the green light in the authorization from the government of Israel for UNRWA to bring in much needed humanitarian supplies.

We've been banned from doing that since the 2nd of March.

There are reports, of course, that other trucks are in fact getting in at this hour.

As far as you know, who's in charge of distributing that aid after the Gaza?

I'm afraid I'm not able to furnish any more information.

I know that if our trucks will be allowed into Gaza, we do have a team of over 10,000 people working for UNRWA, the largest humanitarian organization in Gaza, to distribute that assistance, the much needed assistance to starving people, including one million children.

In addition to the trucks that are able to make it in, and the aid, of course, and food specifically, is also coming via airdrops from Israel and several other states.

What are your thoughts on that, specifically airdrops?

Totally unnecessary, very inefficient, extremely expensive, especially given there is a much easier, safer, quicker, and dignified way for the population, the communities that we're serving, and that's via road.

Exactly what we used to do, including at UNRWA, at the beginning of the year during the ceasefire, we were bringing in 500 to 600 trucks of food, medical supplies, and hygiene material together with the rest of the humanitarian community.

When you say that they're inefficient, is one of the issues you're really referring to that it's usually only the strong and healthy who get their hands on the supplies?

The elderly, the young, and the weak will be at a disadvantage, or are there other issues more pressing that you have in mind?

First of all, in this day and age, as the humanitarian community struggles with funding for its operations, these airdrops, not only in Gaza, but anywhere in the world, are extremely, extremely expensive.

So I'm not sure that this is a great use of money.

And second of all, yes, you're right, only those who are able to get to walk physically to the place where these airdrops are happening are able to bring it or carry it.

In previous cases where airdrops were tried in Gaza, but also in other parts of the world, they have killed people.

And also, lastly, we don't know who gets this aid, if you know what I mean, because there is no monitoring.

It could also be Palestinian armed groups, and as a result, an aid diversion, which has not happened when we were giving aid to the communities.

The optics can be fairly powerful, particularly to the uninformed, these airdrops coming in.

Tell us why they're being done, if they're so inefficient.

It's a distraction from the starvation that is currently taking place in Gaza.

And we've really gone past the optics or the muscling or showing of people in Gaza are starving.

It's time to let organizations like UNRWA bring in the assistance that we're able to deliver at scale to people in need, including one million children in Gaza.

That is Juliet Tuma, UNRWA Director of Communications.

For more, let's bring in our Jerusalem correspondent, Emily Gordine, joining me from the Karam Shalom crossing on the Israeli site.

Israel says it coordinated with the UN and international agencies to, I'm quoting now, increase the scale of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip.

Can we expect the aid deliveries into Gaza to continue?

Well, over the past few weeks, Israel has come under immense pressure from its allies in Europe, particularly, to let humanitarian aid into Gaza.

So I think in the short run, we can expect Israel to honor its commitment to providing humanitarian aid to the civilians in Gaza.

We're seeing now that more and more aid is slowly starting to trickle in, but, of course, many humanitarian organizations will tell you that it's just a drop in the ocean, that this is not enough.

We are hearing reports of Israel also dropping aid by air.

That, in the past, has proven to be quite risky.

So even some of the methods by which the aid is meant to come in have already come under criticism.

The IDF says it dropped seven pallets of food into Gaza.

We know one in three Gazans are facing starvation, according to the UN, and, of course, we're talking about hundreds of thousands of people overall.

Is the feeling there that the IDF food drop is only symbolic?

Well, certainly, if you speak to UNRWA, the UN organization that has provided for many Palestinians since 1948, they certainly have said that this will not reverse the deepening starvation in the Gaza Strip.

In fact, they've called it an expensive and inefficient method of providing aid.

The UN, for decades, has established a method of providing aid to the people of Gaza.

And that was, in a way, cast aside many months ago when the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was put into place.

This all because the Israeli government argued that the UN allowed aid to fall into the hands of Hamas, which has now proven to not have been a systematic issue, a problem that actually did persist.

And also, at the time, Israel did not provide any concrete evidence for these accusations.

And, essentially, now we're seeing, to a degree, a fall back on these old structures, on the UN, for example.

And UNRWA itself has said that it has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks' worth of aid sitting around Gaza, essentially, in Jordan, but also in Egypt, ready to be brought in.

So, certainly, for humanitarian organizations who are very well used to providing aid to this region, to this territory, they say that these methods are not helpful at all.

Emily, the IDF also announced that they will introduce what they're calling tactical pauses for humanitarian purposes.