A US Air Force loadmaster releases humanitarian aid pallets over Gaza on March 2, 2024. Photo: Christopher Hubenthal/US Air Force via Reuters.
The Palestinian resistance as well as Palestinian and international aid groups have called the airdrop of aid in Gaza “useless” and “theater” that does little to nothing to alleviate the famine that the Israeli occupation has imposed on Gaza.
In a statement released on Sunday, March 3, the Media Office of the government of Gaza said “the airdrops of aid are useless” amid the deepening famine in the Gaza Strip, as the occupation continues to block aid trucks from entering the region.
“The famine continues to deepen significantly in the governorates of the Gaza Strip, with 2,400,000 people suffering from a severe lack of food,” the statement noted. The shortage of food is especially severe in the northern Gaza Strip, including Gaza City, where 15 children died from starvation.
In this situation, “some countries have attempted to airdrop aid through a few planes, but it is well known that this is not the optimal method to deliver aid to the people of the Gaza Strip,” the statement expressed.
Over the past week, Jordan, Egypt, UAE, and France have dropped tons of prepared meals, diapers, and other essential supplies in the southern Gaza Strip. It is noteworthy that between October 8, 2023, and February 11, 2024, Jordan exported 25,697 metric tons of vegetables to the zionist entity. As pointed out by the Palestinian newspaper Al-Carmel, “While the settlers are enjoying vegetables and fruits from Jordan and Turkey, famine is spreading in the Gaza Strip.”
On March 2, the United States joined in, as US Air Force C-130s, working with Jordan, dropped containers of more than 38,000 meals on the enclave. However, aid groups working in Gaza have described the airdrops as “theater” that only contributes to the chaos on the ground.
According to the Gaza government, led by Hamas, the United States and other countries that are airdropping aid “have malicious and devious intentions as they actively participate in the war, supply the occupation with weapons, and give it the green light to commit more massacres.”
The Gaza government called the system of airdropping aid and not allowing aid delivery through land crossings “showy, propaganda, and ineffective.” “This aligns with the occupation’s policy of enhancing the starvation policy, buying time for the occupation, and extending the famine to inflict as much damage as possible on the people,” it stated.
The statement also pointed out that it is dangerous and life-threatening for the people to collect the airdropped aid, “as part of this aid lands near the separation fence or in areas controlled by the occupation army or within the occupied Palestinian lands.”
In addition, airdropped aid is highly susceptible to damage due to weather conditions or the circumstances of the drop, and more so in a war situation like that in the Gaza Strip. Videos circulating on the internet have shown aerially dropped aid falling into the sea and thus getting wasted while the famine in Gaza deepens.
In Gaza, 15 Children Die From Starvation While Israeli Siege Continues
The statement further highlighted that “aid delivered by air does not achieve justice at all, as this process requires 2,400,000 people to go out into the streets and then run after the aid, which does not reach safe places, in a shameful, humiliating, inhumane, and non-humanitarian manner.”
“The policy of closing land crossings to relief, supply, and food aid convoys constitutes a war crime in violation of international law, international humanitarian law, and all international conventions, which is what the occupation is doing against our Palestinian people since the beginning of the genocide,” the statement added.
Gaza-based journalist Yousef Fares reported that in North Gaza people were fighting over the small amount of aid, which amounted to less than half of one truckload. One resident interviewed by Fares stated that the occupation purposefully creates a “chaotic and socially disintegrating situation with very frightening consequences.” Fares noted that dozens of Gazans he interviewed “expressed their anger at the humiliating way they are treated by countries that drop such aid.”
Considering all this, the Gaza government stated that it holds responsible the US administration, the international community, and the ‘Israeli’ occupation for the genocide waged by the occupation against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as well as the imposition of famine and other war crimes committed by the Zionist entity.
“We call on all free countries of the world to pressure the occupation to stop the genocide and ethnic cleansing against our Palestinian people, which has claimed more than 100,000 victims, including martyrs, wounded, and detainees; and to immediately and unconditionally stop the bloodshed against civilians, women, and children,” the statement concluded.
The resistance movement Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) also condemned the aid drop show by the US and its Gulf allies. In a statement, the PFLP emphasized that “delivering aid to our people through air drops and no other means, amidst a deliberate slowdown and restrictions imposed by the occupation on its entry through official crossings, reveals the state of the international community’s incapacity and its failure to stop this horrific disaster suffered by our people in the Strip.” The Front warned that “airdrop operations for aid should not replace entry through official crossings, stressing that limiting aid entry to air drops solidifies the occupation’s plans to isolate and divide the Strip, tighten the siege on our people, and cover up the occupation’s crimes and massacres against our people.”
The Department of Refugee Affairs and the Right of Return in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine stated, “Anyone who can coordinate an airdrop can also coordinate for UNRWA’s aid trucks and convoys to fulfill their responsibilities in relieving our people there. The neglect of UNRWA by these international entities has political dimensions that intersect with the occupation’s plans to stop UNRWA’s work in the Strip.”
UNRWA and aid organizations criticize airdrops, call for opening of land crossings
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the principal UN agency for Palestinian refugees, described airdrops as “a last-resort, extraordinarily expensive way of providing assistance.”
According to him, the real and urgent solution for the food crisis in Gaza is to “open the crossings and bring convoys and medical assistance into the Gaza Strip.”
Similarly, the head of the NGO Save the Children, Janti Soeripto, branded the airdrops as “theater” that is fueling chaos on the ground.
“You can’t really guarantee who gets it and who doesn’t,” she commented. “You can’t really guarantee where it ends up. You might put people at risk,” including children who have waded into the sea to try to retrieve the parcels. She thus echoed the concern of the Gaza government regarding the dangers associated with this type of aid delivery.
The British NGO Oxfam commented that it “does not support US airdrops to Gaza, which would mostly serve to relieve the guilty consciences of senior US officials whose policies are contributing to the ongoing atrocities and risk of famine in Gaza.”
An article published by the news outlet Electronic Intifada explained the real intention behind the aid drop “theater”:
By participating in these drops, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, but especially Jordan whose air force is carrying them out, are providing public relations cover for countries directly involved in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
The effect–whether intentional or not–is to relieve Israel and its backers of pressure to lift the total siege Tel Aviv has imposed on the coastal enclave with the clear intent of causing maximum suffering and death to as many people as possible.
The article further explained that the Jordanian monarchy has been coordinating airdrops of aid with ‘Israel’ since November last year, given that “no aircraft can enter the airspace over Gaza without explicit Israeli permission or they risk being shot down.” The occupation even bragged about its involvement in the effort.
This is what the 🇺🇸 is doing right now: dropping aid to Gaza while leaving @Israel to drop more 🇺🇸 made & free supplies bombs to kill more Palestinians on top of the 30,400 already killed inc some 22,000 women & children! @POTUS you are not deceiving us! You still war criminal. pic.twitter.com/ZhLnCCgFdO
— Mustafa Fetouri (@MFetouri) March 3, 2024
In practical terms, these airdrops of aid do nothing to interfere with the Israeli regime’s policy of starvation in Gaza but only serve as propaganda falsely indicating that the people of Gaza are receiving material assistance.
Washington holds the power to stop the genocide, but it has consistently vetoed all ceasefire resolutions brought before the United Nations Security Council while continuing to supply “Israel” with “aid” and weapons. Washington’s duplicity is clear: while US humanitarian aid falls into the ocean, its bombs continue to rain on the entire Gaza Strip.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by Saheli Chowdhury and Dalal al-Zainabi
OT/SC/DZ
Saheli Chowdhury
Saheli Chowdhury is from West Bengal, India, studying physics for a profession, but with a passion for writing. She is interested in history and popular movements around the world, especially in the Global South. She is a co-editor and contributor for Orinoco Tribune.
Dalal al-Zainabi
Dalal is a contributor and volunteer for Orinoco Tribune.
