Can food airdrops avert mass starvation in beleaguered Gaza?

Sources within the humanitarian aid sector say that in the claimed absence of any alternative, the use of airdrops and the planned pier in Gaza will at least bring some relief. (AFP)
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Updated 13 March 2024
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Can food airdrops avert mass starvation in beleaguered Gaza?

  • Enclave has endured months of bombardment and effective siege since Israel launched air-and-ground invasion
  • Opinion divided on whether ongoing airdrops by the US and five Arab countries can make a dent in the problem

LONDON: The US and its Arab allies appear to have finally circumvented the biggest obstructions in the path of food-aid flow to the neediest residents of the Gaza Strip. But averting a humanitarian disaster is still a work in progress.

With Israel proving unable or unwilling to facilitate the entry of aid by road to the beleaguered enclave, the US has begun efforts to bring relief to the millions of Palestinians on the brink of starvation.

Gaza has endured months of bombardment and effective siege since Israel launched an air-and-ground invasion in retaliation for the deadly Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7. According to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health, some 30,500 Palestinians have been killed, 70,500 injured and 7,000 have gone missing since the violence began.

News that the US would begin airdrops of food and other supplies over Gaza came on the very day 100 Palestinians were killed by gunfire as they tried to reach a relief convoy. Israel denied that its forces were responsible for all the deaths, but the incident convinced the US and its Arab partners that they had to step in.




The WFP said that just six tons of aid were airdropped over Gaza last week, against 200 tons that sat in a 14-truck convoy waiting to be let through by Israel. (AFP)

President Joe Biden described the loss of life as “heart-breaking,” adding that the desperation of innocent people caught up in the war was starkly portrayed by the incident involving the relief convoy.

Biden said: “You saw the response when they tried to get aid in. And we need to do more, and the US will do more. In the coming days, we are going to join with our friends in Jordan and others in providing airdrops of additional food and supplies.”

Several days after this, the US added to its airdrop strategy a proposal to build a temporary dock on the northern Gaza coast to ferry provisions in from Cyprus by sea — an Israeli-approved humanitarian maritime corridor connecting the territory with the Mediterranean country.

That announcement, part of Biden’s final State of the Union address before the November elections, saw the US president promise that the pier, to be constructed by the US military, would allow Gaza to “receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters.”




A military plane drops humanitarian aid over northern Gaza. (AFP)

Promising “no US boots on the ground,” Biden said that the pier “would enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day.”

While the promises have been clear, the details surrounding them have been opaque, with no information given on how much aid the US and its allies intend to airdrop over the Palestinian territory.

Indeed, the pledge to construct a pier has raised a number of important questions. Number one is how the aid would be distributed, given the US pledge that none of its troops would set foot on Gazan soil.

Gershon Baskin, Middle East director for the International Communities Organization, says the need for a partner on the ground could present its own future challenges, particularly with Israel representing the only viable option.

“I think with the vacuum of governance, the Israeli government has a responsibility to take this on and to protect the aid,” he told Arab News.

“If it does not want relief materials to be cornered by Hamas, then the Israeli government needs to be doing the protecting. And this might all happen, but that, in turn, brings the danger of creating an Israeli military government in Gaza. This is not something you want long term.”




Seven countries are involved in the operation to airdrop aid to the people in Gaza. (AFP)

Biden’s SOTU address suggested that he expected Israeli authorities to take on the security role, especially when he said the country “must also do its part.”

He added: “To the leadership of Israel, I say, humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority.”

Media reports on Monday said that Israel was considering arming some Palestinian individuals or clans in Gaza to provide security protection for aid convoys into the enclave as part of wider planning for the supply of humanitarian relief after the fighting ends.

INNUMBERS

7 — Countries taking part in Gaza food airdrop operations.

2.2m — People in crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity in Gaza.

1.4m — People reached since the start of the current crisis.

$760m — Money needed for WFP operations until end of 2024.

Source: WFP

Soon afterward, a Hamas-linked website warned Palestinian individuals or groups against cooperating with Israel to provide security for aid convoys.

A senior US official said that the Biden plan for a US-built pier could become operational with or without Israel’s cooperation.




According to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health, some 30,500 Palestinians have been killed, 70,500 injured and 7,000 have gone missing since the violence began. (AFP)

“The president directed that we look at all options, that we don’t wait for the Israelis and that we pursue every channel possible to get assistance into Gaza,” the official told Arab News.

For weeks, Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, an American commentator on Gaza affairs brought up in Gaza City, had advocated via X for air dropping aid into the enclave, tagging everyone from President Biden to World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain.

In a post on March 2, Alkhatib, who calls himself “a pragmatic realist,” wrote: “Stop Dismissing Gaza Food Airdrops! When I first began putting together talking points and ideas for a big push to conduct food airdrops over Gaza in late December of 2023, I reached out to many pro-Palestine activists, advocates and experts in the humanitarian field.

He added: “Airdrops are typically considered a method of last resort due to their associated costs and general inefficiency from planes’ limited cargo delivery capacity compared to ships or trucks.

“But over time, and as I continued pushing, writing and engaging multiple parties and nations, many opened up to the idea of dispersed large-scale airdrops over Gaza, particularly in the isolated and famished north. This led to the large airdrops by Jordan, Egypt and the UAE, paving the way for the US to embrace this option.”

Sources within the humanitarian aid sector say that in the claimed absence of any alternative, the use of airdrops and the planned pier in Gaza will at least bring some relief.

However, they told Arab News that there are viable alternatives to air and sea aid.




US aircraft as part of a joint operation with Jordan and Egypt have been involved in delivering aid to Palestinians. (AFP)

One option popular with aid groups and NGOS seen as vital to staving off looming mass starvation is for the Israelis to remove all impediments to the flow of aid by trucks into Gaza.

While welcoming the Biden administration’s proposed sea corridor, Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s humanitarian, and reconstruction coordinator in Gaza, said that “air and sea is not a substitute for land — and nobody says otherwise.”

Similarly, a UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees spokesperson said: “The most straightforward way of getting aid into the Gaza Strip is to use the existing (road) crossings.”

The UN and the World Food Programme have warned that “if nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza.”

Ghina Bou Chacra, a spokesperson for Amnesty International, made it clear that what was needed was for Israel to lift its blockade on the entry of aid trucks.

“Israeli authorities have time and time again refused to take steps to ensure adequate access to humanitarian aid in Gaza,” Chacra told Arab News.




The amount of aid that can be dispensed by truck dwarfs what Palestinians in Gaza are seeing being dropped from the skies. (AFP)

“They must open all the access points and crossings to enable humanitarian organizations to transfer aid more rapidly into Gaza.

“They must do this on an even larger scale to areas in need and also ensure that humanitarian operations are protected from military attacks.”

Chacra added: “The roads are accessible and there are hundreds of trucks full of humanitarian aid at Gaza’s border (with Egypt) waiting for Israeli clearance.”

Without details on the movement of aid by sea, it is hard to compare, but when looking at air and road, the amount of aid that can be dispensed by truck dwarfs what Palestinians in Gaza are seeing being dropped from the skies.




Palestinians run toward food parcels airdropped onto a Gazan beach. (AFP)

The WFP said that just six tons of aid were airdropped over Gaza last week, against 200 tons that sat in a 14-truck convoy waiting to be let through by Israel.

Both Chacra and Jamie Shea, associate fellow of the International Security Programme at Chatham House, described the airdrops as a wasteful and inefficient means of dispersing aid.

Chacra further cautioned that the strategy was “potentially dangerous,” just hours before news broke that five people had been killed and 10 injured in Gaza after being hit by a pallet of aid.

The accident occurred close to the enclave’s Al-Shati coastal refugee camp on March 8, with reports claiming the pallet struck a group of men and children — who were awaiting its arrival on the ground — after the parachute attached to the aid payload failed to deploy.

“Humanitarian organizations have repeatedly warned that air drops should only ever be used as a last resort — when delivery by road or sea is impossible,” Chacra said.




News that the US would begin airdrops of food and other supplies over Gaza came on the very day 100 Palestinians were killed by gunfire as they tried to reach a relief convoy. (AFP)

According to Alkhatib, the Palestinian-American commentator, “large-scale airdrops over Gaza are requiring the use of hundreds of parachutes like nothing we’ve seen in recent years, presenting a host of challenges that are gradually being overcome and addressed.”

Shea suggested that in the absence of good alternatives, the US could try something like the 1948 Berlin airlift, when, with its European allies, Washington flew hundreds of planes loaded with aid to Tempelhof Airport to feed the West Berlin population and force the USSR to end its blockade of the city.

“Stalin did not shoot at US planes and the only casualties were from forced landings. It would require Western or Arab troops on the ground to unload and service aircraft, protect the airport from looters and store food prior to distribution,” Shea said.

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“Simply dropping off the food and supplies directly to the civilian population would undoubtedly lead to much of it ending up in the hands of the black market or Hamas.”

Echoing the view of many analysts, Shea said that with Biden under political pressure at home, the airdrops were certainly “a good way of showing to Democratic Party voters that the US cares about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and is putting pressure on the Israelis to seriously address this dire situation.”

Moreover, he said, as supplies start to arrive in Gaza via airdrops, the flow of aid — no matter how insufficient — is giving Israel a “safety valve.”




Over 2 million Palestinians are facing acute food insecurity in Gaza. (AFP)

He added: “In sharing the responsibility with other countries, Israel is suddenly not under pressure to open its border with Gaza in a way to allow significant humanitarian supplies through.”

Meanwhile, in a post on Monday on X, Alkhatib said: “Despite being inadequate on multiple levels, in 99 percent of the time, food that’s airdropped over Gaza gets immediately collected by civilians in desperate need; part of the reason why Hamas hates airdrops is because there are limited to no opportunities for the group to steal aid.”


Yemen’s government shuts down unlicensed exchange firms to stop riyal devaluation

Updated 43 min 47 sec ago
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Yemen’s government shuts down unlicensed exchange firms to stop riyal devaluation

  • Local money traders and media said that the riyal was trading at 2050 against the dollar
  • Yemeni government closed dozens of exchange firms in Aden, Yemen’s interim capital, Hadramout, Shabwa, and Mahra that lack or have expired licenses

AL-MUKALLA: The Yemeni riyal stabilized on Monday near its all-time low of 2050 against the dollar in government-controlled areas, as the Yemeni government launched a campaign targeting unlicensed exchange firms.

Local money traders and media said that the riyal was trading at 2050 against the dollar, maintaining the same record low, days after breaking the historic low of 2000 against the dollar. In early 2015, the Yemeni riyal was worth 215 per dollar.

This comes as the Yemeni government closed dozens of exchange firms in Aden, Yemen’s interim capital, Hadramout, Shabwa, and Mahra that lack or have expired licenses.

Local officials, escorted by armed policemen, were seen in the streets of Aden, Al-Mukalla in Hadramout, Attaq in Shabwa, and Al-Ghaydah in Mahra province, inspecting exchange firms and shops’ licenses and closing the doors of unlicensed firms to slow the devaluation of the Yemeni riyal.

The Yemeni government has long accused local money traders of engaging in currency speculation, which resulted in the Yemeni riyal’s rapid devaluation.

Another reason for the devaluation, according to the Yemeni government, is the Houthis’ attacks on oil terminals in Hadramout and Shabwa in late 2022, which resulted in a complete halt to oil exports.

Saleh Fadaeq, the head of the central bank branch in Shabwa, said on Monday that the campaign against unauthorized exchange firms would continue to stop the Yemeni riyal’s devaluation, end currency speculation, and combat money laundering, according to the official news agency SABA.

The Presidential Leadership Council and the Yemeni government have recently requested financial assistance from international donors to help stabilize the Yemeni riyal, pay employees, and fund critical projects.

Yemenis across the political and social spectrum have warned of a major humanitarian crisis in Yemen, as the rapid devaluation of the riyal has driven up the prices of food, fuel, and other essential commodities, pushing people deeper into poverty.

Ismael Al-Sharabi wrote on Facebook that the riyal’s depreciation is causing “a humanitarian crisis,” with the prices for basic food items reaching unprecedented highs. He urged the Yemeni government to quickly bring under control the riyal’s fall.

“A tomato now costs 1,000 riyals. This is a humanitarian disaster and a historical curse that has befallen these people, who are now fighting death to survive, swallowing all burdens, high prices, and extreme poverty,” Al-Sharabi said.

High prices caused by the riyal’s devaluation have sparked violent protests in Aden and Al-Mukalla, as well as other Yemeni cities under government control, over the last several years.

Mustafa Nasr, director of the Studies and Economic Media Center, said the government’s campaign against unlicensed exchange firms did not lead to the riyal’s recovery as it only targeted small firms and not the large exchange firms that control the market, calling for stricter government measures to prevent the riyal’s fall.

“The exchange sector has become disorganized, bloated, and has sufficient liquidity to influence the exchange market,” Nasr told Arab News.

In its most recent report on the Yemeni economy, released late last month, the World Bank depicted a bleak economy in 2025, saying that Yemen’s gross domestic product is expected to fall by 1 percent in 2024, compared to a 2 percent drop last year.

Sixty percent of Yemenis have insufficient access to food due to an unprecedented level of insecurity brought about by the war, and the Houthis’ attacks on oil terminals slashed 42 percent of the government’s revenues, making it difficult for it to provide public services and devaluing the Yemeni riyal, according to the World Bank.


Syrian state media reports Israeli strike south of Damascus

Updated 23 min 25 sec ago
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Syrian state media reports Israeli strike south of Damascus

  • The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported at least three strikes in the area

DAMASCUS: Syrian state media reported Israeli strikes on Monday near the Sayyeda Zeinab area south of Damascus, home to an important Shiite sanctuary and guarded by pro-Iranian groups, including Hezbollah.
"At approximately 5:18 pm (14:15 GMT), the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights, targeting a number of civilian sites south of Damascus, which led to some material losses," the official SANA news agency said, citing a military source.
Mehdi Mahfouz, a 34-year-old resident of the area, said he "heard three successive explosions, one of which was very strong."
"Then I saw a large black cloud of smoke rising," Mahfouz added.
The blasts were heard in the neighbouring Jaramana suburb of Damascus, according to an AFP photographer, as ambulances headed to the area.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported at least three strikes in the area.
The targets include a house "used by members of Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard," the monitor added, saying it is located in a farm in the Sayyeda Zeinab area.
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters including from Hezbollah.
The Israeli military has intensified its strikes on Syria since it launched its war on Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon.
Israeli authorities rarely comment on the strikes, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence in Syria.


Sudan’s RSF chases civilians out of villages in violent raids

Updated 04 November 2024
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Sudan’s RSF chases civilians out of villages in violent raids

  • The war has unleashed hunger across the country, erased most signs of a functioning state in RSF-held areas, and prompted fears of fragmentation

NEW HALFA: Salwa Abdallah was recuperating from a caesarean section and tending to her one-month old baby when soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces barged into her home in Sudan’s eastern El Gezira state late last month.
They accused her of loyalty to the army and its allies, their rivals in an 18-month war. “They said ‘You killed us, so today we’ll kill you and rape your girls,’” she told Reuters, sheltering under a makeshift sheet in the town of New Halfa, where she arrived after walking for days on foot with her elderly mother and children.
She said the soldiers chased them out of their village with whips and later shot at them on motorcycles, which two other victims of the attack also mentioned.
Reuters spoke to 13 victims of a series of intense, violent raids in eastern Gezira over the past two weeks, which affected at least 65 villages and towns according to activists.
The UN says some 135,000 people have been displaced, largely to Kassala, Gedaref, and River Nile states, which are already packed with many of the more than 11 million internally displaced by the devastating war that broke out in April 2023.
“I am shocked and deeply appalled that human rights violations of the kind witnessed in Darfur last year ... are being repeated in El Gezira State. These are atrocious crimes,” said the UN’s top official in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, referring to attacks last year that prompted accusations of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity from the United States and others.
The war has unleashed hunger across the country, erased most signs of a functioning state in RSF-held areas, and prompted fears of fragmentation.
Both sides are accused of hindering much needed international assistance.
Spokespersons from the RSF and Sudanese army did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

REVENGE ATTACKS
Though El Gezira state has been subject to a violent looting campaign since the RSF took control in December, the defection of its chief in the state unleashed a series of revenge attacks.
The Wad Madani Resistance Committee, a pro-democracy group, named 169 people killed since the violence began on Oct. 20, though in a statement it said there were hundreds more.
The UN’s human rights office said last week that there were at least 25 cases of sexual violence, including an 11 year-old girl who died as a result. The office also said that the RSF had confiscated Internet devices in at least 30 villages, and cited reports they had burnt fields of crops.
The worst incident was in Al-Sireha, where the committee said 124 people were killed on Oct. 25.
Video verified by Reuters showed RSF soldiers lining up men, many of them elderly, and some in blood-splattered clothes, taunting them and forcing them to bleat.
Another video verified by Reuters showed dozens of bodies wrapped up in sheets for burial.
The RSF has denied ordering both attacks, and said the attacks in Gezira were the result of the army arming local communities.
The army has responded by emphasising popular resistance campaigns, though there has been little evidence of widescale arming of civilians in Gezira.
The Sudanese Human Rights Monitor warned the army against “leaving civilians ... exposed to direct and disproportionate confrontations with the RSF,” which it criticized for not fulfilling promises to protect civilians.
Hashim Bashir, a man disabled after his leg was amputated prior to the war, said RSF soldiers threw him out of his home in Al-Nayb village.
“They are very vicious... If you survive their gunshots, they hit you in your head. If you survive that, they beat you with a whip,” he said, showing scars on his functioning leg.
His niece, Faiza Mohammed, said the RSF soldiers allowed them to take nothing with them, even identifying documents.
“I hid under the bed, but they got me, beat me, and pulled my earring straight off my ear,” she said.


‘War ruined me’: Lebanon’s farmers mourn lost season

Updated 04 November 2024
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‘War ruined me’: Lebanon’s farmers mourn lost season

  • Agricultural regions in Lebanon have been caught in the crossfire since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah ramped up in October last year, a full-scale war breaking out on September 23

BEIRUT: Lebanese farmer Abu Taleb briefly returned to his orchard last month to salvage an avocado harvest but ran away empty handed as soon as Israeli air raids began.
“The war broke out just before the first harvest season,” said Abu Taleb, displaced from the village of Tayr Debba near the southern city Tyre.
“When I went back in mid-October, it was deserted... it was scary,” said the father of two, who is now sheltering in Tripoli more than 160 kilometers to the north and asked to be identified by a pseudonym because of security concerns.
Abu Taleb said his harvesting attempt was interrupted by an Israeli raid on the neighboring town of Markaba.
He was forced back to Tripoli without the avocados he usually exports every year.
Agricultural regions in Lebanon have been caught in the crossfire since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah ramped up in October last year, a full-scale war breaking out on September 23.
The UN’s agriculture agency, FAO, said more than 1,909 hectares of farmland in south Lebanon had been damaged or left unharvested between October last year and September 28.
The conflict has also displaced more than half a million people, including farmers who abandoned their crops just when they were ready to harvest.
Hani Saad had to abandon 120 hectares of farmland in the southern region of Nabatiyeh, which is rich in citrus and avocado plantations.
“If the ceasefire takes place within a month, I can save the harvest, otherwise, the whole season is ruined,” said Saad who has been displaced to the coastal city of Jounieh, north of Beirut.
When an Israeli strike sparked a fire in one of Saad’s orchards, he had to pay out of his own pocket for the fuel of the fire engine that extinguished the blaze.
His employees, meanwhile, have fled. Of 32 workers, 28 have left, mainly to neighboring Syria.


Israeli strikes have put at least two land crossings with Syria out of service, blocking a key export route for produce and crops.
Airlines have suspended flights to Lebanon as insurance costs soar.
This has dealt a deadly blow to agricultural exports, most of which are destined for Gulf Arab states.
Fruit exporter Chadi Kaadan said exports to the Gulf have dropped by more than 50 percent.
The supply surplus in the local market has caused prices to plummet at home, he added.
“In the end, it is the farmer who loses,” said Saad who used to earn $5000 a day before the war started.
Today, he barely manages $300.
While avocados can stay on the tree for months, they are starting to run out of water following Israeli strikes on irrigation channels, Saad said.
Citrus fruits and cherimoyas have already started to fall.
“The war has ruined me. I spend my time in front of the TV waiting for a ceasefire so I can return to my livelihood,” Saad told AFP.
Gaby Hage, a resident of the Christian town of Rmeish, on the border with Israel, is one of the few farmers who decided to stay in south Lebanon.
He has only been able to harvest 100 of his 350 olive trees, which were left untended for a year because of cross-border strikes.
“I took advantage of a slight lull in the fighting to pick what I could,” he told AFP.
Hage said agriculture was a lifeline for the inhabitants of his town, which has been cut off by the war.
Ibrahim Tarchichi, president of the farmers’ union in the Bekaa Valley, which was hit hard by the strikes, believes that agriculture in Lebanon is going through the “worst phase” of its recent history.
“I have experienced four wars, it has never been this serious,” he said.


Israeli settlers burn cars in West Bank attack

Updated 24 min 44 sec ago
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Israeli settlers burn cars in West Bank attack

  • Governor of Ramallah and Al-Bireh Laila Ghannam: ‘Attacks are increasing because of impunity’ for attackers
  • Some 490,000 settlers live in settlements considered illegal under international law in the West Bank

AL-BIREH: Israeli settlers torched nearly 20 cars early Monday in the occupied West Bank city of Al-Bireh, near Ramallah, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence and an Israeli security source.
An AFP journalist saw several cars completely charred, and the blackened facade of the five-story building outside which they were parked.
An alert rang “at 3:30am (0130 GMT) signalling that settlers entered the area and committed acts of vandalism,” said Rami Omar, head of the local civil defense office.
An Israeli security official told AFP notification of the incident came at 4:00 am and soldiers were sent who arrived on site after the settlers had gone.
The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said 19 vehicles had been burned by settlers.
Israeli police, soldiers and Shin Bet security agency officers collected evidence in Al-Bireh for the investigation, the official added.
Israeli authorities did not yet know where the settlers came from and what their motives were.
Ihab Al-Zabin, a resident of the damaged building, told AFP he saw the arsonists run away toward the nearby Israeli settlement of Beit El.
Zabin said he saw around 10 people he identified as settlers “pouring liquids on vehicles in front of the building and then setting them on fire.”
“I yelled from my apartment, and at that moment they ran away,” he said. “When I went down with my neighbors to put out the fire, settlers shot toward us.”
Abdullah Abu Rahmah from the Palestinian Commission against Settlements told AFP that the attackers belong to a group of arsonists who have attacked other nearby villages in the past.
Laila Ghannam, governor of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, told journalists at the scene “there could have been a massacre in this building,” which residents say housed more than 60 people.
“Attacks are increasing because of impunity” for attackers, she said.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 last year triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
The UN’s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said in August: “Between 1 and 28 October, OCHA documented nearly 270 settler-related incidents affecting Palestinians and their property.”
Some 490,000 settlers live in settlements considered illegal under international law in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
The territory is home to three million Palestinians.