Aid entering the Gaza Strip by land is well below pre-war levels
A military aircraft hovered over the war-torn ruins of Gaza City, dropping dozens of black parachutes carrying food aid.
With few buildings visible on the ground, hungry men and boys rush to the beach, where most of the aid appears to have already arrived.
Dozens of people jostled for food, scrambling up and down the rubble-strewn dunes.
“People are fighting to get a can of tuna,” said Mohamed Sabawi, a nearly empty bag slung over his shoulder next to a little boy.
“The situation was miserable, like we were in a famine. What could we do? They laughed at us and gave us a small can of tuna.”
Aid groups say only a fraction of the supplies needed to meet basic humanitarian needs have arrived in Gaza since October, while the United Nations had warned of famine in the northern part of the territory until May but had failed to intervene urgently.
According to UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, aid entering the Gaza Strip by land is well below pre-war levels, with about 150 vehicles a day compared with at least 500 before the war.
As Gazans grow increasingly desperate, foreign governments have turned to airdrops, especially in hard-to-reach northern areas like Gaza City.
Several countries, including the United States, France and Jordan, are conducting airdrops to people living in the ruins of the besieged territory’s largest city.
But the crews themselves told AFP the airdrop volume was not enough.
U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Jeremy Anderson said earlier this month that what they can provide is “a drop in the bucket” of what’s needed.
Air operations were also marred by fatalities. According to a medical officer in Gaza, the parachute malfunctioned and five people on the ground fell to their deaths and 10 others were injured.
Calls are growing for Israel to allow more land aid, while Israel accuses the United Nations and UNRWA of not distributing aid in Gaza.
“Palestinians in Gaza urgently need what was promised – a massive amount of aid. Not a trickle,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on Sunday after visiting the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza on the border with Egypt.
He added: “Looking across Gaza, the four horsemen of war, famine, conquest and death are virtually on the march.”
The war was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory bombings and incursions into Gaza aimed at destroying Hamas have killed at least 32,333 people, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.
Al-Sabawi returned home to Gaza City with little to support his family and said their situation was dire.
“We are the people of Gaza, waiting for aid airdrops, willing to die for a can of beans – and then we share it with 18 people.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
