Israel approves foreign airdrops of aid into Gaza as starvation crisis deepens

Israel has announced that it will now allow foreign governments to airdrop humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, as the territory continues to face severe food shortages.

A senior official from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) told Sky News on July 25: “Starting today, Israel will allow foreign countries to parachute aid into Gaza.” The official added that the humanitarian organisation World Central Kitchen (WCK) also resumed some of its operations that same afternoon.

WCK had previously suspended its activities in Gaza in November, following the deaths of several of its workers in an Israeli airstrike. The group, known for providing emergency food relief in crisis zones, had been one of the key players in delivering hot meals and supplies before halting operations.

The worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza has severely affected aid workers attempting to deliver food, medicine, and shelter to millions of displaced residents amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Since late May, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — a joint Israel and US-backed initiative — has been distributing food packages in the territory. This followed Israel’s easing of an 11-week blockade on aid entry. However, the United Nations reports that more than 1,000 people have died while trying to obtain food since then, underscoring the desperation of the population.

On July 25, Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry reported that nine more people had died of malnutrition within the past 24 hours. According to the ministry, a total of 122 people — including 83 children — have died from hunger-related causes since the start of the war.

The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, treated 5,000 children for acute malnutrition during the first half of July, but warned on Friday that Gaza is now nearly out of the specialised therapeutic food needed to continue treatment.

Air deliveries of aid into Gaza have occurred previously, including in 2023 and early 2024, with countries like Jordan, the US, and the UK  —using the Royal Air Force — participating. However, humanitarian agencies have long cautioned that airdrops alone are not sufficient to meet the scale of the need, and that they carry significant risks.

In March 2024, five people were killed when a parachute failed and a package fatally struck them. There have also been incidents of people drowning while trying to retrieve aid parcels that landed in the sea.

The latest developments come amid Israel’s continuing war against Hamas, which began after the militant group carried out a large-scale assault on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. That attack left 1,200 people dead and approximately 250 taken hostage, prompting a full-scale military response from Israel in Gaza.

By Tamilla Hasanova