At least 11 Palestinians have been injured in northern Gaza due to aid airdrops carried out by the Israeli military. The airdrops were part of the ongoing efforts to facilitate the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip. However, local sources reported that some aid pallets hit tents near al-Rasheed Road, where displaced people are living.
The Israeli military announced that it “carried out an airdrop of humanitarian aid as part of the ongoing efforts to allow and facilitate the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip.” However, the Palestinian group Hamas condemned the move, calling it a “symbolic, deceptive move aimed at whitewashing its image before the world.”
Hamas held Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “directly responsible” for policies that have led to mass civilian deaths, calling his handling of aid and the starvation deaths of Palestinians “clear-cut war crimes.” “The arrival of food and medicine to Gaza is not a favour, it is a natural right and an urgent necessity to stop the catastrophe imposed by the Nazi-like occupation,” Hamas said.
Meanwhile, aid agencies expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of airdrops in delivering enough food safely to tackle the deepening hunger crisis in Gaza. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said, “Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians.”
Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said airdrops carried out in the past in Gaza “were not effective, they did not reach enough people, let alone the chaos and violence they have caused.” He added that the airdrops confirm that “Gaza has turned into a testing lab and the Israeli military is experimenting with every attack, every policy.”
Humanitarian experts described the gesture as symbolic at best, noting that one aid truck carries up to 40 pallets, while Gaza needs at least 500 trucks per day to meet minimum humanitarian needs. The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor condemned the airdrops, calling them “humiliating and ineffective” in addressing the deepening starvation in Gaza.