Jordan and France dropped food and other supplies to people in Gaza on Monday, parachuting some aid packages into the sea, a provocative effort that underlined the desperate need in Gaza as aid agencies have warned of increasing constraints on their ability to distribute supplies.
The video shows a cluster of parachutes falling into the sea near Deir al Balah, a city in central Gaza. Men in small boats rowed through choppy waters to get help, watched by a crowd of hundreds who ran for the packages as soon as they reached shore.
Alaa Fayad, a veterinary student who took video of the scene on the beach and posted it online, said there was not much help. “It was sad to see people I know well running and crowding to get help that isn’t nearly enough,” he said.
Three planes from the Royal Jordanian Air Force and one from its French counterpart dropped the supplies, including ready meals, at various locations, the Jordanian military said in a statement. The French plane dropped more than two tons of food and hygiene supplies, the French foreign ministry said.
The amount is just a fraction of what the United Nations says is the need faced by Gaza’s more than two million residents. The two tons of aid dropped by the French plane is less than a truckload of supplies. It was not immediately clear why at least some of the aid fell overboard.
Aid groups usually airdrop supplies only as a last resort, given the inefficiency and relative cost of the method compared to road deliveries, as well as the risk to people who might be hit as it falls to the ground.
But France, which was involved in an earlier airstrike, said it was stepping up its work with Jordan because “the humanitarian situation in Gaza is absolutely urgent,” according to a statement from the French foreign ministry.
“With an increasing number of civilians in Gaza dying of hunger and disease,” the statement said, more routes must be open for aid deliveries, including to Israel’s Ashdod port, north of Gaza.
Jordan began airdropping aid in November and has since completed more than a dozen missions, mostly to supply its field hospitals in Gaza. At least one airfield mission was carried out jointly with France in January, and two others were assisted by the Netherlands and Britain.
In previous airstrikes, Jordan said it had coordinated its efforts with Israeli authorities, who insisted they inspect all aid entering Gaza. The Israeli military confirmed it had authorized the latest airdrops and said it had not advised the French and Jordanians to drop the aid over the sea.
Calls for internationally coordinated airstrikes have intensified as aid groups simultaneously warn that the hunger crisis in Gaza is reaching a tipping point and that some obstacles to traditional aid distribution have become insurmountable.
Last week, the World Food Program suspended food deliveries to northern Gaza, saying that despite dire needs there, it could not operate safely amid gunfire and the “collapse of political order” in recent days. The WFP and other UN aid agencies have repeatedly warned that their access to northern Gaza is being systematically blocked by Israeli authorities, calling on the government to ease its restrictions. Israel has denied blocking aid deliveries.
The suspension of WFP deliveries to an area where they are most needed shows that, despite their many limitations, airdrops may be one of the few viable options left for quickly transporting food to northern Gaza, according to Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, Middle East policy analyst. which grew in the enclave. The Jordanian airstrikes, he said, had set a “critical precedent” for the feasibility of the approach.
“Just wanting a ceasefire or just wanting better Israeli cooperation” is not enough, said Fouad Alkatib. “We need action right now.”
Matthew Boke Big and Nader Ibrahim contributed to the report.
