At least 11 Palestinians were injured by aid dropped on Gaza by Israel. Tel Aviv claimed the air drops are acts of humanitarian assistance, while aid agencies warn it will not reverse the massive starvation in the Strip.
On Saturday, the Israeli military announced it had air-dropped “humanitarian aid” in Northern Gaza. Al-Jazeera reports that several Palestinians were injured when large pallets of assistance landed on tents. Additionally, some of the air-drops landed far from where Palestinians are sheltering.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN aid agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), responded by warning that air-dropping aid can be dangerous. “Gaza: Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient & can even kill starving civilians,” he wrote on X. “It is a distraction & screensmoke.”
#Gaza: airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient & can even kill starving civilians.
It is a distraction & screensmoke.A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will.
Lift the siege, open the gates & guarantee safe movements…— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) July 26, 2025
In 2024, President Joe Biden led a group of nations in air-dropping aid into Gaza. It was criticized by Palestinians and aid agencies at the time. The falling aid led to several deaths, including five people crushed to death during one incident.
Lazzarini went on to argue that the solution of Gaza’s hunger crisis is ending the Israeli siege of Gaza and allowing international aid agencies to distribute assistance to the desperate people. “A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements, and dignified access to people in need,” he wrote. “Allow the U.N., including UNRWA, and our partners to operate at scale and without bureaucratic or political hurdles.
“At UNRWA, we have the equivalent of 6,000 trucks in Jordan & Egypt waiting for the green light to get into Gaza,” Lazzarini added.
The hunger crisis in Gaza is so bad that journalists working with Western outlets are now starving. “We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families,” a joint statement by AFP, The Associated Press, Reuters, and BBC News said. “For many months, these independent journalists have been the world’s eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering.”
