As the conflict within the Gaza Strip worsens due to the escalation from Israel and its rising hunger crisis, the U.K. made its first airdrop of aid on Monday.
According to the Washington Post, the aid drop was a joint effort by the Royal Jordanian Air Force and the British Royal Air Force. Both groups had dropped a variety of food aid into drop zones on the northern coastline of Gaza. The aid included water, rice, cooking oil, tinned goods, flour, and baby formula.
In a statement Tuesday morning, U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps stated that the recent aid drop represents the U.K.’s increased efforts in providing aid to Palestinians in every way available.
“The U.K. has already tripled our aid budget to Gaza, but we want to go further in order to reduce human suffering, Shapps said. “Today’s air-drop has provided a further way to deliver humanitarian support, and I thank the RAF personnel involved in this essential mission, as well as our Jordanian partners for their leadership,”
Shapps concluded by echoing the calls for Israel to increase the flow of aid into Gaza through opening port access and expanding land crossings. However, following these aid drops, many humanitarian groups and even Hamas themselves have criticized this method of aid delivery, calling them “offensive, wrong, inappropriate and useless” in a statement on Tuesday.
According to CNN, witnesses told the network of seeing casualties from civilians trying to swim towards the aid drops and drowning.
“There was strong currents and all the parachutes fell in the water. People want to eat and are hungry,” said Abu Mohammad, a witness to the drownings. “I haven’t been able to receive anything. The youth can run and get these aid [drops], but for us it’s a different story.”
Gaza civil defense emergency services spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal echoed these claims to the Washington Post, saying that air-dropping aid has led to the deaths of at least 18 people through drowning or crashing into people’s homes or from the stampedes from civilians rushing to retrieve these packages.
Both he and the Hamas government agree that opening land crossing for aid would be the safest for Palestinian civilians. Since the Oct. 7 attack, the death toll amongst Palestinians within Gaza has reached over 32,000.
