French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter: "In the face of extreme urgency, we have just carried out an airdrop of food aid to Gaza. We thank our Jordanian, Emirati, and German partners for their support, and our military personnel for their commitment."
He continued, "Airdrops are not enough. Israel must fully open the door to humanitarian aid to address the threat of famine."
Earlier, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told France Info that "Paris will send four flights carrying ten tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza from Jordan."
A global hunger monitor warned last Tuesday that a famine scenario is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, with a sharp increase in malnutrition, the deaths of children under the age of five from hunger-related causes, and severe restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid.
Macron's office stated that "France participated six times in the European Humanitarian Air Bridge established by the European Union in mid-October 2023 to Jordan and Egypt to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza."
According to Macron's office, the European Air Bridge has facilitated more than 60 flights carrying over 3,350 tons of humanitarian supplies, with most of the aid shipments entering via Egypt and Jordan.
The French President's office stated that some of this aid has not yet entered Gaza due to Israeli authorities' refusal.
German aid
For its part, the German Defense Ministry said on Friday that "the army has begun airdropping relief supplies over the Gaza Strip, initially with two air force flights carrying approximately 14 tons of supplies."
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius stated that "air flights can only make a very small contribution to providing those affected on the ground with basic necessities," expecting Israel to ensure the entry of "comprehensive humanitarian supplies" to the population of the Strip.
The German Foreign Ministry indicated that Berlin also pledged an additional five million euros ($5.70 million) in support to the World Food Programme in Gaza.
"The land route is better and faster"
In contrast, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, stressed on Friday that airdrops of aid to Gaza are "insufficient" and cost at least 100 times more than ground shipments.
In a post on the X platform, Lazzarini explained that "airdrops are at least 100 times more expensive than sending aid by truck, which carries twice the amount of supplies as planes."
He added, "If there is political will to allow airdrops of aid, despite their high cost and inadequacy, there must be the same will to open land crossings."
The UN official emphasized that "the only way to combat famine in Gaza is to flood the Strip with aid," noting that UNRWA has approximately 6,000 trucks loaded with aid parked outside the Strip, awaiting entry.
Lazzarini stated that during the previous truce (January 19, which lasted for about three months), the United Nations, including UNRWA and its partners, was able to bring in between 500 and 600 trucks daily, reaching all citizens in Gaza "safely and with dignity," and contributing to curbing the worsening hunger without recording any cases of theft or diversion of aid.
Lazzarini stressed that "UN-led coordination, with UNRWA as the backbone, is irreplaceable, and no other mechanism has achieved similar results."
"Let's go back to what worked, let's do our job. That's what the people of Gaza need today more than ever, along with a permanent ceasefire," he said.
The Israeli occupation army announced last Saturday that it had "permitted" the airdropping of limited quantities of aid to Gaza.
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.
Since March 2, Israel has closed all crossings into Gaza, preventing the passage of any humanitarian aid. This has plunged the Strip into a state of famine, despite the backlog of aid trucks at its borders.
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Health in Gaza, the death toll from famine and malnutrition has reached approximately 154 Palestinians, including 89 children, since the start of the war as of Wednesday.
Beyond the supervision of the United Nations and international relief organizations, Tel Aviv began implementing an aid distribution plan on May 27 through the so-called "Gaza Humanitarian Relief Foundation," an organization supported by Israel and the United States but rejected by the United Nations.
Palestinians assert that the aid distribution mechanism through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aims to gather them and force them to leave their lands, paving the way for the reoccupation of Gaza.
Since the launch of this mechanism until Friday, 1,383 Palestinian martyrs and more than 9,000 wounded have arrived at Gaza hospitals as a result of Israeli army gunfire on those waiting for aid, according to the Ministry of Health.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with American support, has been committing genocide in Gaza, including killing, starvation, destruction, and displacement, ignoring international calls and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it.
The genocide left approximately 208,000 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.
