Spain drops 26 tons of aid in Gaza as air delivery method faces growing concerns
Madrid says haul included 11,000 food rations, calls for ‘indispensable’ opening of land crossings; recent deaths tied to parachuted deliveries raise questions about their value
MADRID, Spain — Spanish military planes airdropped 26 tons of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and Madrid called on Israel to open land border crossings to prevent a famine, its foreign ministry said, despite pleas from Hamas to halt the airdrops due to several deadly incidents.
The operation, carried out in coordination with Jordan and co-financed by the European Union, dropped more than 11,000 food rations to alleviate the “catastrophic levels of food insecurity” faced by up to 1.1 million people in Gaza, the ministry said in a statement.
“Spain insists on the opening of the land crossings as an indispensable measure to avoid a famine situation,” it added.
Other Western countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany, have also resorted to air drops to deliver aid to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza after nearly six months of war between Israel and Hamas that began with the Palestinian terror group’s massive attack on Israel that killed close to 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Aid agencies say deliveries into Gaza, much of which has been laid to waste by Israeli airstrikes, have been held up by bureaucratic obstacles and insecurity since the start of the war on October 7, 2023. Last week, a UN-backed report said a famine was imminent — that it was likely to occur by May in northern Gaza and could spread across the enclave by July.
Israel says it puts no limit on the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza and blames problems in it reaching civilians there on UN agencies, which it says are inefficient at organizing deliveries, and Hamas seizing the aid, denying Gazan civilians of supplies.
Even before 18 people were killed when airdrops of aid into Gaza went disastrously wrong on Monday, many had questioned the sense in using planes when food can be delivered far more rapidly by road.
With only a trickle of aid getting into the starving north, foreign governments have turned to airdrops as “a way to show that they’re doing something,” said Shira Efron of the Israel Policy Forum.
The problem is that “airdrops are as inefficient as they are dangerous,” according to a source from an international NGO working in Gaza who asked to remain anonymous.
And they can be deadly to the desperate people waiting on the ground.
Twelve hungry Gazans drowned trying to fish food packages from the sea on Monday, and six more were killed in stampedes. According to the UK’s Guardian newspaper, the packages that fell into the sea apparently had documents identifying them as coming from the US.
People have also been crushed by the crates after parachutes malfunctioned, with five killed and 10 injured earlier this month, when crates fell “like rockets” on the Al-Shati refugee camp.
Despite the deaths and the risks, Palestinians like mechanic Ahmed Al-Rifi were back the day after the latest tragedy waiting for the next drop, on the same beaches where the 18 people were killed.
“Every day, people get hurt or even killed fighting to get flour, water, lentils, and beans,” he said.
Taxi driver Uday Nasser said it was “deeply humiliating,” adding that “the strong take from the weaker ones. Sometimes they use knives or even shoot.”
UNICEF’s James Elder, who is in Gaza, said “typically food aid is delivered from the air because people are cut off and it’s the only way to reach them.”
“Here, the lifesaving aid they need is a matter of kilometers away. We need to use the roads,” he said.
After the latest tragedy, Hamas pleaded for foreign powers to stop the drops, saying they were a “real danger to the lives of hungry citizens.”
But the plea fell on deaf ears — Jordan’s army said five more drops were carried out on Wednesday, with help from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, and Spain. The UK said it dropped 10 tons of supplies on Monday.
The United States also pledged to continue airdrops with US Central Command, confirming it had dropped 46,000 powdered meals over northern Gaza on Monday.
Some of those dropping the aid admit that it is little more than a gesture, with so many of Gaza’s 2.4 million people starving.
US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Anderson told AFP during a drop earlier this month that the aid delivered by air was only a “drop in the bucket” of what was needed.
He said that if a parachute failed to open, they tried to make sure it ended up in the water, where “nobody is going to get hurt.” Tragically, on Monday, people drowned as they tried to get the crates landing in the water, witnesses saying some of the dead were children.
“The countries doing the drops, particularly the US, know that it is making almost no difference,” the humanitarian aid source claimed.
However, the drops are highly visible and make for striking television images. They can be seen them from miles away — military cargo planes flying low, leaving a trail of black, pink or grey parachutes behind them, each carrying up to a ton of aid.
“I think it is a way of putting indirect pressure on Israel” to let more food aid in, the source added.
