Israel To Permit Aid Airdrops Into Gaza as Tensions Grow Over Humanitarian Situation

Israel will soon allow Jordan and the United Arab Emirates to resume aid airdrops into Gaza. In coordination with the Israel Defense Forces, Jordan may conduct its first airdrop as soon as Friday, The Times of Israel Reports.  

In 2024, the U.S., working with Jordan and other nations, airdropped aid into Gaza. The plan to resume aerial aid delivery comes as reports grow over insufficient food supplies in Gaza, and as Israel continues to push back on claims that they are blocking aid into Gaza.  

“Israel does not limit the number of trucks entering the Gaza Strip, and it is the collection issue that is preventing the continuous delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” Col. Abdullah Halabi, head of Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in Gaza, said in a video message Friday.  

Israel and the United Nations have blamed each other for the lack of aid distribution.  

Israeli officials say truckloads of aid are waiting just inside Gaza for the U.N. and aid organization to distribute the supplies. But U.N. officials say Israel has not given U.N. staff the approval needed to access and distribute the aid.

On the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom Crossing, where Israel, Gaza, and Egypt touch, Halabi says there are “over 800 trucks of humanitarian aid” waiting to be distributed, but U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric says accessing and distributing the aid is not easy.  

“The Kerem Shalom is not a McDonald’s drive through where we just pull up and pick up what we’ve ordered,” Dujarric said Wednesday during a press conference. “There are tremendous bureaucratic impediments. There are tremendous security impediments. And, frankly, I think there’s a lack of willingness to allow us to do our work.”  

The process of collecting the aid is complex, Dujarric explained.  

“There are trucks that come in from Israel. They go through a first checkpoint. They’re in a sense of a no man’s land or demilitarized zone, whatever you want to call it, an inside the crossing. And then we have to come in with our own trucks, we have to be allowed to come in with our own trucks. The goods have to switch from one truck to another. It’s a very lengthy procedure, which we’ve explained a lot,” the U.N. spokesperson said.  

But Halabi, speaking in the video message shared to X, said Israel has increased the number of aid trucks entering Gaza and “extended the operating hours of the crossings, coordinated new routes for aid collection, and opened additional crossings.”  

Halabi claims that Hamas is running a “propaganda campaign” around the aid crisis in Gaza “as a pressure tactic in the framework” of negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage deal.  

News broke Thursday that negotiations between Israel and Hamas have again broken down after Hamas made changes to a proposed ceasefire and hostage deal that Israel was not willing to accept.  

In the meantime, Halabi says Israel will continue to work with the UN and aid organizations to find solutions for aid to reach civilians in Gaza.  

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