TEHRAN – The number of Palestinians killed due to the false air drop of humanitarian aid has risen to 23, with 124 others injured.
The government media office in Gaza made the announcement in a statement after collecting data from all aid since the start of the Israeli Genocide War in the Coastal District.
The office emphasized that most aid drops will land in areas where most aid drops are controlled by Israeli occupation forces or have forced residents to be empty, and that will place people at risk of being directly targeted and killed.
In addition to falling into unmanned or dangerous areas, many airdrops land between busy residential zones, making them effective and dangerous for civilians struggling under siege and starvation.
The statement also noted that in previous cases, some aid zones fell into the sea, leaving 13 Palestinians owned last year.
The media office has repeatedly warned of the dangers of these inhumane methods, sought urgent and safe delivery of aid, particularly food, baby formula, medicine and medical supplies at land crossings.
It condemned the ongoing policy of “engineering hunger and chaos” by the occupation regime, holding the Zionist regime, the United States, the nations involved, and the broader international community fully accountable.
The office called for immediate and serious action to open land intersections and enable an unlimited flow of humanitarian assistance.
“These drops of air are falling in very populated areas. They are dangerous. They are falling in tents, people are injured,” Medesin’s project coordinator Caroline Willemen told the Medesin Frontiere clinic in Gaza City.
Aid groups also point out that as the hunger crisis continues to spiral and many of the enclaves are entering a hunger situation, drops can only provide a small portion of what Gaza needs to have in the population of more than 2 million.
The UN Relief and Labour Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) highlighted the need to open road intersections to provide aid of scale throughout the Gaza Strip.
“Airdrop costs at least 100 times more than a truck. The truck is responsible for twice the aid of an airplane,” UNRWA Chairman Philip Lazarini stressed in a social media post.
“If there is a political will to allow airdrops that are very expensive, inadequate and inefficient, there should be a similar political will to open road intersections,” he emphasized.
Lazarini also noted that UNRWA has 6,000 trucks stuck outside Gaza awaiting admission.
During the ceasefire earlier this year, UNRWA and other UN agencies were able to introduce 500-600 trucks of assistance daily.
“Aidance reached the entire population of Gaza, with safety and dignity. We managed to reverse the escalating starvation without diverting aid,” said the head of Unrwa.
The Berlin-based Centre for Humanitarian Action (CHA) called it “the most meaningless air transport ever” and “a symbolic waste of politics and money.” Its director, Ralph Suduff, said Airlifts is up to 35 times more expensive than a convoy on the land.
German charity Welthungerhilfe described the airdrop as “symbolic” and “ineffective.”
Oxfam and other aid organizations reflect those words.
The Israeli occupation regime denied access to the Gaza Strip, which had been completely blocked by almost all international NGOs.
This has resulted in large-scale hunger and malnourished civilians. Women, children and seniors struggle to survive, and fatal hunger is spreading throughout the enclave.