Some countries are using airplanes to launch food in the Palestinian encycling. But the NGOs criticize a measure as “symbolic and” ineffective “and say that only the restoration of the terrestrial routes will be able to contain hunger. The extent of the hunger that the Palestinians face in Gaza do not have parallel in this century, Ross Smith, director of the World Food Program (PMA), recalls previous catastrophes in Ethiopia or Ethiopia. He said.” warning, but an invitation to action. “
The “worst scenario of hunger” is taking place in the Gaza range, has also affirmed IPC Hunger Monitor, an initiative that monitors the food situation in Gaza in collaboration with the United Nations agencies.
The report states that the hunger threshold has already been overcome throughout the Palestinian territory and that the threshold for acute malnutrition, which can cause serious complications and lead to death, has been overcome in the city of Gaza.
Most of the over two million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip live in precarious conditions in the refugee camps, because the Israeli army has declared most of the 365 square kilometers of the territory as a military exclusion area.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said that “there is no hunger in the Gaza Strip”. Since the beginning of the war, Israel has almost completely denied the access of journalists to the area, making it impossible to evaluate the situation independently.
“Cynicism”, “symbolic politics” and “waste of money”
In the last few days, some international actors have sought ways to try to relieve acute hunger: Sunday, military planes from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have launched 25 tons of help of help in the Palestinian territory.
Germany and France have also announced their aerial release missions. “This action can only be a small humanitarian contribution, but sends an important signal: we are there, we are in the region, helping,” said German federal chancellor Friedrich Merz.
But humanitarian organizations are shocked. “The launch of humanitarian help from the air is a useless initiative that has a smell of cynicism,” said Jean Guy Vataux, an emergency coordinator for the Médicos region without borders.
The Berlin Think Center for the humanitarian action (CHA) called it “the most insignificant air bridge of all time” and “symbolic policy and waste of money”. According to its director, Ralf Südhoff, air transport is up to 35 times more expensive than land trains.
Air versions do not reach the most needy
Marvin Fürdrer, specialist on emergency aid at the German organization Civl Welthungerhilfe, speaks of “symbolic and ineffective releases”. For DW, it describes a fundamental problem: “The load is launched without coordination, without a designated launch area, without safety structures in a high risk environment”.
Help often does not reach people who need it most “, but for those who still have enough mobility to cross the rubble and roads crowded in the launch area and fight for the load on site,” says Fürdrer.
Almost every day the deaths are reported around the few distribution centers of the controversial humanitarian Foundation of Gaza (GHF). On the basis of the United States, the organization was commissioned to distribute the Gaza range since May, with the approval of President Donald Trump, after Israel has forbidden the United Nations Humanitarian Agency for UNRWA to operate independently of Enclave.
However, Ghf has not been able to guarantee safety in distribution centers. In addition, according to the United Nations, the Israeli army repeatedly triggers people waiting in line. From 27 May and from 21 July, according to the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, more than a thousand Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers while trying to obtain supplies for humanitarian aid.
Only through terrestrials could they provide territory
Humanitarian organizations ask for the free passage of humanitarian aid supplies to the Gaza Strip and the return to the old system: instead of being delivered in some specific points, the foods have been distributed in a decentralized way in about 600 distribution points.
Riad Othman, a specialist in the Middle East of the International Medical Organization, said in a press conference in Berlin: “Before 7 October 2023, from 500 to 600 trucks per day provided the population and the economy of Gaza. Today 600 trucks per day would not be enough to satisfy the demand, because not only the essential infrastructures and the health system, but also agriculture were systematically destroyed in Gaza.
A truck usually requires about 20 tons of emergency supplies, which often include, in addition to food, medical products and drinking water.
On October 7, Hamas killed more than 1,200 people in Israel in a coordinated terrorist attack and kidnapped another 250 hostages in the Gaza Strip. Israel therefore declared its military goal of destroying Hamas, but also accepted tens of thousands of civil victims and the wide destruction of the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Health Authority reports over 60,000 deaths, including at least 147 per inanition.
After the end of the ceasefire in March, Israel blocked all deliveries for more than 80 days. A few days ago, the Israeli army made daily breaks in the fighting in the Gaza Strip and allowing additional help. Netanyahu Itamar Ben-Gvir security minister, from an ultra-right party, criticized the measure as “vital support for the enemy”.
Julia Duchrow, general secretary of Amnesty International in Germany, said: “There are large tests that Israel is using hunger as a war weapon”. He asked the German government to stop providing weapons from Israel and increasing diplomatic pressure on the Netanyahu government.
“Trains can start within hours”
The Israeli government has denied access to many international non -governmental organizations to the Gaza Strip; Even today it can currently provide help through local partner organizations.
Marvin Fürdrer defends a permanent fire and the opening of the border passages for the supply of humanitarian aid. Therefore, Welthugungerhilfe could bring Jordan to the Gaza strip in a few hours, he said. “These trains could start within a few hours, as soon as the on -site political conditions allowed.”
For the air versions already planned, however, logistics should be rethought, which would cause new costs. “It is quite interesting that this is considered now, in a context in which the German government wants to reduce the budget for humanitarian aids of 53%. In such a situation, it is difficult to spend millions of symbolic and ineffective planes released,” said Fürer.
The German aeronautics already has experience with aerial versions in Gaza. In 2024, A400m military planes conducted aerial release missions for ten weeks. In total, 315 tons of emergency supplies were launched. Based on a minimum humanitarian need of 500 trucks per day, this would cover the needs of the hungry population in the Gaza strip for about eight hours.
Contribution: Jens Thurau
Source: Terra
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