Delivering Food via Aerial Drops to Gaza is a Deception: Strategies to Combat Mass Hunger
The ongoing crisis in Gaza is a matter of global concern, with world leaders and humanitarian organisations urging immediate action to prevent mass starvation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that there is no starvation in Gaza, a statement that has been rejected by world leaders, including Netanyahu's ally, U.S. President Donald Trump. However, local health authorities have reported 147 deaths from starvation so far, with 80 percent of them being children.
The United Nations (UN) has characterized the limited reopening of aid deliveries to Gaza as a potential "lifeline", but what's needed to fully avert famine is for Israel to fully open the Gaza borders to allow aid and humanitarian personnel to flood in. This is according to the International Rescue Committee.
Israel has announced daily pauses in its military strikes on Gaza and the opening of humanitarian corridors to facilitate UN aid deliveries. However, the country is only permitting 70 trucks per day into the Gaza Strip, which is below the required 500-600 trucks per day according to the United Nations.
The UN World Food Programme has enough food stockpiled to feed all of Gaza for three months, but only an agreed ceasefire is the only way to reach everyone. The UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine has called air-dropping food into Gaza a "distraction" and a "smokescreen". Air-dropping food supplies is considered a last resort due to the undignified and unsafe manner in which the aid is delivered, and air-dropped pallets of food are also inefficient compared with what can be delivered by road.
The long-term impacts of mass starvation in Gaza will take generations to heal, causing lifelong cognitive and physical effects that can be passed on to future generations. Malnourished children in Gaza require nutritional screening and access to fortified pastes and baby food for proper care.
The UN emergency relief chief, Tom Fletcher, has characterized the next few days as "make or break" for humanitarian agencies trying to reach more than two million Gazans facing "famine-like conditions." Israel must guarantee safe conditions for the dignified distribution of aid that reaches everyone, including women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities.
Twenty-six Western states and the EU Commission have agreed to support Israel to fully open the borders with Gaza to allow humanitarian aid and people in necessary quantities to prevent a major catastrophe. This joint declaration was signed by EU commissioners and foreign ministers from most EU countries, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, and the UK, demanding the use of all border crossings and routes for aid into Gaza.
However, states must also pressure Israel to extend its military pauses into the only durable solution: a permanent ceasefire. Famine expert Alex de Waal has called the famine in Gaza without precedent, and two leading Israeli human rights organisations have publicly called Israel's war on Gaza "a genocide."
The situation in Gaza is critical, and urgent action is needed to prevent a humanitarian disaster. The world must come together to pressure Israel to allow aid in at the scale required to avert famine and to work towards a permanent ceasefire.
