France – alongside other European nations – is pursuing airdrops of humanitarian aid into the Gaza strip, with the help of Middle East partners. However, it insists that fully opening land crossings is the only efficient way to help the more than two million Palestinians who aid agencies say are facing starvation.
France has been loading aid into its military transport aircraft at a base in Jordan before dropping it off over the Gaza strip.
The Jordanian army has been assisting France with flight plans and drop locations to avoid accidents when the pallets land.
The first airdrop took place on Friday, followed by one on Saturday without any hitches, the French army told Franceinfo.
There are still 28 tons of products to be delivered out of the total 40 promised by France.
Concern has escalated in the past week about hunger in the Gaza Strip after more than 21 months of war, which started after Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out a deadly attack against Israel in October 2023.
Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 60,430 people, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.
Defining famine: the complex process behind Gaza's hunger crisis
Israel has also heavily restricted the entry of aid into Gaza, already under blockade for 15 years before the ongoing war.
According to the United Nations, the Palestinian territory is threatened with "widespread famine," and would need "more than 62,000 tons of vital aid each month "to cover the most basic humanitarian needs for food and nutrition."
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Saturday underlined France's intention to step up aid delivieries. "We will continue. Without respite. But only the immediate opening of land crossings will allow for massive and unhindered delivery," he wrote on the social network X.
More than 50 tons of French humanitarian cargo are stuck in Egypt, a few kilometres from the border with Gaza.
Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron thanked Jordanian, Emirati, and German partners for their support.
But he insisted that "airdrops are not enough. Israel must grant full humanitarian access to address the risk of famine."
International organisations have for months condemned the restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities on aid distribution in Gaza, including refusing to issue border crossing permits, slow customs clearance, limited access points, and imposing dangerous routes.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – supported by Israel and the United States and opposed by NGOs – has since May become the main channel for distributing food but only has four main sites.
The UN has said that 6,000 trucks are awaiting permission from Israel to enter the occupied Palestinian territory.
Insufficient deliveries
Other European nations such as Germany, Britain, Spain and Italy have also begun delivering aid by air.
Germany staged its first food airdrops into Gaza on Thursday and Friday, which coincided with a visit by Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who warned that "the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is beyond imagination."
At a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wadephul, Wadephul urged Israel "to provide humanitarian and medical aid to prevent mass starvation from becoming a reality".
UN says hundreds killed in recent weeks while seeking aid in Gaza
Italy said Friday it would begin air drops over Gaza, becoming the latest European countries to do so.
"I have given the green light to a mission involving Army and Air Force assets for the transport and airdrop of basic necessities to civilians in Gaza, who have been severely affected by the ongoing conflict," Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in a statement.
Italy's air force will work with Jordan's military to air drop special containers containing essential goods, with the first drops on 9 August, he said.
Spain on Friday said it had already air-dropped 12 tonnes of food into Gaza.
Meanwhile, the United States special envoy Steve Witkoff promised a plan to deliver more food to Gaza after inspecting a US-backed GHF distribution centre on Friday.
The visit was intended to give "a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza," Witkoff said.
(with newswires)
