U.S. and Jordanian forces have been conducting airdrops of supplies in Gaza. U.S. military planes started dropping food and supplies in Gaza over the weekend. Around 38,000 meals were dropped by American and Jordanian forces with parachutes along Gaza’s coastline on Saturday. However, the need is much greater as more than 2 million people live in the Gaza Strip, and a quarter of them are facing imminent starvation according to the U.N.
Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International and former director of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, explained on All Things Considered with Ari Shapiro why airdropping aid is a last resort. He highlighted that airdrops are the most inefficient way of delivering aid and are only used when no other options are available.
Konyndyk mentioned that airdrops are eight to 10 times more costly than overland transport and deliver much smaller volumes of aid. Despite the inefficiency, the decision to airdrop aid into Gaza was made due to the ongoing obstruction of aid delivery by the Israeli government. This frustration with Israeli obstruction has led to a rise in airdrops as a means of getting aid to Gaza.
Critics have pointed out the irony of the U.S. both supplying bombs to Israel and airdropping food parcels in Gaza. Konyndyk agreed that this situation is grim and calls for real pressure and leverage to be put on Israel to allow aid to reach the population. He emphasized that U.S. law prohibits providing security assistance to a country that obstructs humanitarian aid, suggesting that Israel may be in violation of this law.
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