Starving in Gaza: Airdrops Are Failing While Civilians Die Without Aid

Malnutrition leads to permanent disabilities, death

GAZA, PALESTINE — Gaza is reaching the peak level of starvation, where people are beginning to collapse and die in the streets. If action isn’t taken immediately, it could soon be too late for Palestinian civilians.

The world is witnessing an unprecedented man-made humanitarian crisis that is deteriorating daily, and this is allowed by impunity and inaction. Humanity & Inclusion's local staff describe horrendous conditions affecting Palestinians of all ages, as well as humanitarian workers.

“It’s a nightmare with no end," one HI worker recently shared. Humanitarian workers living in Gaza are not separate from the suffering — they are experiencing hunger, displacement, and danger. They’re courageous and strong, having served people in need over the past 21 months while trying to survive, but now they’re collapsing as well.

They are physically and mentally depleted, struggling to concentrate or function as they face the effects of malnutrition and dehydration.

Militarized Aid

• The Israeli government has militarized aid in Gaza. As of July 21, over 1,000 people were killed in Gaza while trying to get food, according to the UN.
• Along with 107 INGOs, HI is urging governments to act: open all land crossings, restore the full flow of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items, and fuel through a principled, UN-led mechanism, end the siege, and agree to a ceasefire now.
• This is not aid, nor a humanitarian response; it’s a militarized tool to implement a political agenda.

Starvation

Right now, essential aid — including food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter materials, and fuel — is stockpiled in warehouses, some just outside Gaza and even inside the Strip. However, HI and hundreds of other organizations and UN agencies are being blocked from distributing it. We need to do our job, which means having access to people to provide aid. Humanitarian workers have been prevented from doing their job.

Severe restrictions, delays, and a tightly controlled siege imposed by the Israeli authorities have made it nearly impossible to get this life-saving aid to those who desperately need it. The result is growing chaos, deepening hunger, and preventable deaths.

Distributions in Gaza average just 28 trucks a day, far from enough for over 2 million people, many of whom have gone weeks without assistance. During the ceasefire in February, we had an average of 600 trucks entering per day, and yet it was not enough.

People are forced to risk their lives to reach food or water. If they do not die under bombing or rubble, they die of starvation. Water is simply life and is a right for all. Not having access to clean water poses a serious risk to everyone, but especially to people with chronic illnesses and injuries. Getting clean water is one of the daily ordeals that our colleagues in Gaza tell us about as they struggle to survive and obtain basic needs, just like the other 2 million people there.

Starvation and Disability

People with disabilities, injuries, and trauma are starving. Consequently, they cannot recover, and they might develop lifelong or worsening disabilities.

When it comes to newborns, there is no water or formula; many newborns are dying. A large number of newborns are born with a disability, such as cerebral palsy, due to malnutrition. Malnutrition is a leading cause of disability and even death. There is a risk that a whole generation will be born with disabilities.

Over 83% of persons with disabilities in Gaza have lost their assistive devices, so they cannot access any basic services, move to ask for help, or evacuate when they receive evacuation orders.

Airdrops and Tactical Pauses

So-called tactical pauses and airdrops are not meaningful solutions. Before the war, Gaza received 500 to 1,000 trucks a day. Today, after months of siege and bombardment, the needs are exponentially greater, yet the access is worse. Even when aid is allowed in, humanitarian organizations like HI are prevented from distributing it. Aid sits unused in Gaza because Israeli authorities delay, restrict coordination, and refuse to guarantee unfettered access and safe passage. INGOs are being blocked and delayed at every turn, accused of not doing our jobs, and denied the tools to do them.

Humanitarian organizations need unfettered access through all the borders. This is not a logistics problem. It is a deliberate policy in place. Humanitarian aid is being instrumentalized to mask a political crisis.

Starvation cannot be solved by a few trucks, a new crossing, or a few hours of calm. Children who have endured months of hunger are suffering irreversible harm, stunted growth, cognitive damage, injuries that become life-changing disabilities, and trauma. For many, it is already too late.

Airdrops are not the best option in a humanitarian emergency, particularly in a context like Gaza, where access by land is possible. They are the last-resort option in situations where land access is not possible.

Airdrops cannot meet the massive scale of need: a Hercules plane carries ten times less aid than a truck (3 metric tons versus 20-30 metric tons per truck).

Additionally, airdrops are costly and put hungry people at further risk: airdrops are not accurate. They can land in the sea or on terrain contaminated with unexploded ordnance, putting the lives of people desperate to grab a package in danger.

With no one on the ground to organize the distribution of airdropped goods, the packages can’t be accessed by the most vulnerable, such as the elderly, people with disabilities, and women-headed households.

After the initiation of the airdrops, community members across the Gaza Strip report ongoing harm. Communities are reporting injuries, collapse of homes, full exclusion of vulnerable groups, and a sense of loss of dignity from the process. Aid dropped during the night on July 27 is reported to have landed on tents, injuring residents, and in damaged buildings and areas affected by heavy bombardment, exposing people attempting to reach it to the risk of injury or death by explosive ordnance.

The best option is for all border crossings into Gaza to be opened, including those in the north, where the hunger is most acute. Aid must be allowed to reach all communities throughout the Gaza Strip.

Concrete Action Is the Only Path Forward

• We need States to take concrete actions: we need an immediate and permanent ceasefire, access without limitation or sham bureaucratic impediments.
• We need to restore the UN humanitarian system. States must pursue concrete measures to end the siege, such as halting the transfer of weapons and ammunition. They have all the legal, political, and economic instruments to act and stop this nightmare.
• Every minute, every second costs lives, and silence and inaction in the wake of such crimes is complicity.  
• As we have witnessed, statements have not changed anything. We need concrete and immediate action to see actual change on the ground.

Spokespersons are available for interview upon media request.