Aid finally arrives as starvation haunts Gaza
• Jordan, UAE drop 25 tonnes of food supplies; official says airdrops not enough to address needs of 2.2 million besieged Palestinians
• Six more die of starvation; 10 injured by aid drops; trucks entering from north mobbed by desperate population
• World welcomes 10-hour daily ‘pause’ in Israeli military operations; urges Tel Aviv to do more
JERUSALEM: At least six more people succumbed to starvation on Sunday, as food supplies finally trickled into the Gaza Strip after Jordan and the United Arab Emirates parachuted 25 tonnes of aid into the besieged enclave, the first airdrop in months.
According to aid groups, mass hunger haunts Gaza’s 2.2 million people, with the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) saying that a third of the population of Gaza has not eaten for days, and 470,000 people are “enduring famine-like conditions”.
Since Israel imposed a total blockade on aid entering Gaza on March 2, the situation inside the territory has deteriorated sharply. More than 100 NGOs warned last week of “mass starvation” in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
Six deaths were reported over the past 24 hours due to malnutrition, bringing the total toll from hunger to 133, including 87 children. A Jordanian official told Reuters that airdrops were not a substitute for delivery by land to feed the starving populace which faced Israel-manufactured famine for weeks.
Palestinian health officials in Gaza City said at least 10 people were injured by falling aid boxes; however, most were happy about the prospects of finally getting a meal.
“People are happy that large amounts of food aid will come into Gaza,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a business owner. “We hope today marks a first step in ending this war that burned everything up.”.
Humeid, a 23-year-old from the Al-Karama neighbourhood of Gaza City, told AFP that dozens of people had gathered to rush towards the palettes of supplies parachuted onto the area.
“It felt like a war, everyone trying to grab whatever they could. Hunger is merciless. The quantities were extremely limited, not enough even for a few people, because hunger is everywhere. I only managed to get three cans of fava beans,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Red Crescent said it was sending more than 100 trucks carrying over 1,200 metric tonnes of food to southern Gaza on Sunday. A Palestinian official source said on Sunday afternoon that the trucks were still being inspected at Kerem Shalom and had not yet entered Gaza.
The desperation for food was evident from the fact that seven to 10 trucks filled with flour, which were allowed into the northern part of the Gaza Strip, could not all make it to Gaza City.
Hungry crowds surrounded them, and people who were desperate for one bag of flour and other basic necessities mobbed them, Al Jazeera reported.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera also reported that more than 53 people were killed by Israeli fire, including 32 who had been waiting to receive aid.
Military operations ‘paused’
The aid drops came amid an announcement by Israel that it would ‘pause’ its military operations in parts of Gaza for 10 hours a day, and allow new aid corridors.
The military said designated secure routes for convoys delivering food and medicine will also be in place between 6am and 11pm, starting from Sunday.
Military activity will stop from 10 am to 8 pm (0700-1700 GMT) until further notice in Al-Mawasi, a designated humanitarian area along the coast, in central Deir al-Balah and in Gaza City, to the north.
The Israeli military also said it had also begun airdropping food into the Palestinian territory – making one drop of seven palettes.
Hamas denounced the Israeli measures to allow more aid into Gaza, saying Israel was continuing its military offensive. “What is happening isn’t a humanitarian truce,” said Hamas official Ali Baraka in a statement on Sunday.
International concern
While Israel’s decision to pause military operations and allow aid into Gaza were welcomed, most actors agreed the actions fall short of what is needed to alleviate suffering in the besieged enclave.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that Israel’s announcement was “essential but long overdue”, and that access to aid must now be urgently accelerated over the coming hours and days.
UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher said their teams would “do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window”.
UN rights chief Volker Turk said Israel, as the occupying power in Gaza, was obliged to ensure sufficient food was provided to the population.
“Children are starving and dying in front of our eyes. Gaza is a dystopian landscape of deadly attacks and total destruction,” he said in a statement.
“The starvation of people in Gaza must end now,” UN refugees chief Filippo Grandi said on X.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation warned on Sunday that malnutrition rates were reaching “alarming levels” in the Gaza Strip, marked by a spike in deaths in July.
Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2025