Enlarge image
The Jordanian air force dropping aid supplies over the Gaza Strip at the end of February
Photo: Jehad Shelbak / REUTERS
On Saturday, the United States began airdropping food packages into the Gaza Strip.
The Americans cooperated with Jordan, which has been dropping aid deliveries from the air over Gaza for a long time, mostly at the coordinates of hospitals.
US President Joe Biden called for more help to finally reach the Gaza Strip on Friday, following the alarming reports of over 100 deaths during the distribution of aid supplies in the north.
The Israeli army apparently opened fire there.
The process is not yet completely clear.
Airdrops are expensive and inefficient
The people of the Gaza Strip are fighting for survival.
According to the latest figures from the UN Coordination Office for Humanitarian Affairs, 2.2 million people are now at acute risk of famine, almost the entire population.
378,000 people have reached the most extreme level of hunger.
At least nine children were reported to have died of starvation by the end of February.
But aid deliveries from the air cannot solve this problem.
They are expensive and inefficient, humanitarian aid experts report.
According to its own information, the USA dropped off over 38,000 meals on Saturday.
This is little considering there are over two million starving people who also lack clean drinking water and medicine, not to mention safe accommodation or sanitary facilities.
Before the war, Israel inspected an average of around 500 trucks per day at the Kerem Shalom border crossing and allowed them to pass into the sealed off area.
Since the start of the war, Israel has allowed at best almost 200 trucks per day into the enclave, on some days there were only four or nine - while the suffering of the people has increased dramatically with tens of thousands of war disabled people and the broken infrastructure.
This would require far more than 500 trucks per day.
No orderly distribution
The USA cannot make up for this with air drops.
In addition, they can hardly regulate secure distribution in this way.
Probably, as the former head of the US aid agency USAID in the Palestinian territories, Dave Harden, suspects, the stronger would get hold of these aid supplies, and not the weakest and most needy.
Law and order has collapsed in the Gaza Strip.
Local Hamas police have abandoned their posts securing aid deliveries after being repeatedly attacked there by the Israeli army.
At least 11 Hamas police officers are said to have been killed by Israeli airstrikes.
Aid organizations also complain that despite coordination with the Israeli army, their transports are repeatedly shot at by the Israeli army and that the processes for coordinating transports with the army are opaque and complicated.
People waiting for relief supplies also came under fire several times before last Thursday.
From mid-January to the end of February, the UN human rights office recorded at least 14 incidents in which people waiting for aid in Gaza City were shot at.
more on the subject
Humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip: "Only a ceasefire can help us" An interview by Monika Bolliger
Dozens of victims during aid delivery in the Gaza Strip: Killed while fighting for flour By Thore Schröder, Tel Aviv
Encircled Palestinians: UN fears hunger crisis in Gaza – families fight over emergency rations
The work of the relief organizations is becoming increasingly difficult; some areas are no longer accessible to them.
They have therefore been urgently appealing for a ceasefire for weeks, which is still a long time coming.
An investigation by the US broadcaster CNN has meanwhile shown in detail how Israel is hindering the transport of aid to the Gaza Strip.
These are inspected by Israel's military administration in a non-transparent bureaucratic control system.
According to the report, urgently needed anesthetics or oxygen cylinders, for example, are rejected, as are water filter systems or cancer drugs.
According to the report, inspectors even refused dates or sleeping bags to the starving population freezing in tents on absurd grounds.
Closed border crossings
In addition, Israel is keeping several border crossings into the Gaza Strip closed, which could also be used for humanitarian aid.
Overall, Israel is failing to fulfill its duty as an occupying power to protect the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and prevent famine.
If Israel opened all border crossings and ended unnecessary hurdles for aid deliveries, it could change a lot.
If massively more aid reaches the besieged enclave through multiple entrances, it won't solve all the problems, but the distribution struggles will decrease - because there is enough for everyone.
As a close ally and security guarantor of Israel, Washington would have leverage.
But so far Biden seems unable to get Israel to change course.
With the airlift, he is instead relying on symbolic politics.