Mohammed Saber/EPA
Air-dropping food into Gaza is a ‘smokescreen’ – this is what must be done to prevent mass starvation
July 29, 2025
Amra Lee, Australian National University
https://theconversation.com/air-droppin ... ion-262053
Israel partially lifted its aid blockade of Gaza this week in response to intensifying international pressure
https://theconversation.com/suffering-i ... ans-261547 over the man-made famine
https://observer.co.uk/news/opinion-and ... e-playbook in the devastated coastal strip.
The United Arab Emirates and Jordan airdropped
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgj270grkxo 25 tonnes of food and humanitarian supplies on Sunday. Israel has further announced daily pauses in its military strikes on Gaza and the opening of humanitarian corridors to facilitate UN aid deliveries.
Israel reports it has permitted 70 trucks per day into the strip since May 19.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/ ... on-in-gaza
This is well below the 500–600 trucks required per day, according to the United Nations.
Palestinians try to grab bags of flour from an aid truck near a food distribution point in northern Gaza on July 27. Mohammed Saber/EPA
The UN emergency relief chief,
Tom Fletcher, has characterised the next few days as “
make or break” for humanitarian agencies trying to reach more than two million Gazans facing “
famine-like conditions”.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/07/1165504
A third of Gazans have gone without food
https://x.com/UNICEF/status/1949445580301721699 for several days and 90,000 women and children now require urgent care
https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-statement-gaza for acute malnutrition. Local health authorities have reported
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/tru ... /i6627o7z9 147 deaths from starvation so far, 80% of whom are children.
Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed – without any evidence –
there is no starvation in Gaza.
This claim has been rejected by world leaders,
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-29/ ... /105585494 including Netanyahu ally US President
Donald Trump.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ce-of-food
Famine expert
Alex de Waal has called
https://carnegieendowment.org/middle-ea ... =autoemail the famine in Gaza without precedent:
[…] there’s no case of such minutely engineered, closely monitored, precisely designed mass starvation of a population as is happening in Gaza today.
While the UN has welcomed the partial lifting of the blockade, the current aid being allowed into Gaza will not be enough to avert a wider catastrophe, due to the severity and depth of hunger in Gaza and the health needs of the people.
According to the UN World Food Programme,
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/07/1165504 which has enough food stockpiled to feed all of Gaza for three months, only one thing will work:
An agreed ceasefire is the only way to reach everyone.
Airdrops 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.
The UN has already reported civilians being injured
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/un ... nd/3644607 when packages have fallen on tents.
The Global Protection Cluster, a network of non-governmental organisations and UN agencies, shared a story
https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-p ... -july-2025 from a mother in Al Karama, east of Gaza City, whose home was hit by an airdropped pallet, causing the roof to collapse:
Immediately following the impact, a group of people armed with knives rushed towards the house, while the mother locked herself and her children in the remaining room to protect her family. They did not receive any assistance and are fearful for their safety.
Air-dropped pallets of food are also inefficient compared with what can be delivered by road.
One truck can carry up to 20 tonnes of supplies.
https://www.dw.com/en/middle-east-germa ... e-73433944
Trucks can also reach Gaza quickly if they are allowed to cross at the scale required. Aid agencies have repeatedly said they have the necessary aid and personnel sitting just one hour away at the border.
Given how ineffective the air drops have been – and will continue to be – the head of the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine has called them
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/is ... de/3643138 a “
distraction” and a “
smokescreen”.
Malnourished women and children need specialised care
De Waal has also made clear how starvation differs from other war crimes – it takes weeks of denying aid for starvation to take hold.
For the 90,000 acutely malnourished women and children who require specialised and supplementary feeding, in addition to medical care, the type of food
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-27/ ... /105579110 being air-dropped into Gaza will not help them. Malnourished children require nutritional screening and access to fortified pastes and baby food.
https://www.unicef.org.au/stories/gaza- ... 145h_uXHy5
Yazan Abu Ful, a 2-year-old malnourished child, sits at his family home in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on July 23. Jehad Alshrafi/AP
Gaza’s decimated health system
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/05/1163251 is also not able to treat severely malnourished women and children, who are at risk of “
refeeding syndrome”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/worl ... om%20dying. when they are provided with nutrients again. This can trigger
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11125494/ a fatal metabolic response.
Gaza will take generations to heal
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/ga ... rt/3642266 from the long-term impacts of mass starvation. Malnourished children suffer lifelong cognitive and physical effects
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/the ... /kw6ki9xf2 that can then be passed on to future generations.
What needs to happen now
The UN has characterised the limited reopening of aid deliveries to Gaza as a potential “
lifeline”,
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/07/1165504 if it’s upheld and expanded.
According to
Ciaran Donnelly from the International Rescue Committee, what’s needed is “
tragically simple”
https://www.npr.org/2025/07/25/nx-s1-54 ... group-says: Israel must fully open the Gaza borders to allow aid and humanitarian personnel to flood in.
Israel must also guarantee safe conditions for the dignified distribution of aid that reaches everyone, including women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities. The level of hunger and insecurity mean these groups are at high risk of exclusion.
The people of Gaza have the world’s attention – for now. They have endured increasingly dehumanising conditions – including the risk of being shot trying to access aid
https://www.npr.org/2025/07/23/nx-s1-54 ... casualties – under the cover of war for more than 21 months.
Two leading Israeli human rights organisations have just publicly called
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/maj ... /c125gijma Israel’s war on Gaza “
a genocide”. This builds on mounting evidence
https://www.un.org/unispal/document/un- ... t-07may25/ compiled by the UN and other experts
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/opin ... osition=15 that supports the same conclusion, triggering the duty under international law
https://www.un.org/en/genocidepreventio ... et-ENG.pdf for all states to act to prevent genocide.
These obligations require more than words – states must exercise their full diplomatic leverage to pressure Israel to let aid in at the scale required to avert famine. States must also pressure Israel to extend its military pauses into the only durable solution – a permanent ceasefire.
