UNRWA's director of media and communications, Juliette Touma, said Sunday in statements to the New York Times, published by the agency on its X platform, that bringing in aid through land crossings is "much easier, more efficient, faster, and less expensive" than airdropping it.
"Why use airdrops when we can transport hundreds of trucks across the border?" Touma asked, noting that more than 6,000 UNRWA aid trucks have been stranded at the crossings since March 2, awaiting Israeli permission to enter the besieged enclave.
"Lift the blockade, open the crossings, and ensure safe movement for aid convoys and dignified access for those in need," she added, in a message directed at Israel, which is promoting limited airstrikes on areas in Gaza.
Touma's statements come as Tel Aviv promotes its permission for limited airdrops of aid to the Palestinian enclave, which is suffering from a raging famine. Trucks carrying aid and relief supplies are piling up at land crossings that Israel has closed since March 2.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini had previously described the airdrops as a "distraction" and "smokescreen to cover up the reality of the humanitarian catastrophe" facing the Gaza Strip.
In the same context, the World Food Programme expressed hope on Sunday that the "humanitarian truce" recently declared by Israel in specific areas of the Gaza Strip would lead to a "significant increase" in the volume of urgent food aid provided to the population.
The UN program explained in a post on the X platform that it has sufficient quantities of food in the region or on its way to Gaza, enough to feed the Strip's population for approximately three months, if regular access is permitted.
This comes as the Israeli occupation army announced on Saturday that it had "permitted" the airdropping of limited quantities of aid to Gaza, and the commencement of what it called a "local tactical suspension of military activities" in specific areas of the Gaza Strip to allow the passage of humanitarian aid.
This Israeli move coincides with mounting regional and international pressure as a result of the worsening famine in the Gaza Strip and warnings of the threat of mass death threatening more than 100,000 children there.
The Gaza Strip is experiencing one of the worst humanitarian crises in its history, with a severe famine intertwined with a genocidal war waged by Israel since October 7, 2023.
The Israeli genocide, with American support, left more than 204,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 9,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and a famine that claimed the lives of many.
