France will begin air-dropping 40 tonnes of food supplies into the Gaza Strip from Jordan on Friday. The territory has been under a full blockade imposed by Israel for several months.
“There will be several flights – four in total – each carrying 10 tonnes of humanitarian cargo,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told FranceInfo.
“This is emergency aid, but of course it is not sufficient,” he said, describing the situation as “revolting”. Barrot added that “in the first half of July alone, no fewer than 5,000 children under the age of five were admitted for treatment due to acute malnutrition”.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitoring body, said this week that a famine scenario was unfolding in the Gaza Strip, and that urgent action was needed to prevent mass deaths.
More than 110 aid and human rights groups denounce Gaza 'mass starvation'
Barrot on Thursday said the US and Israel-backed aid distribution system had caused a “bloodbath” and must stop.
“I want to call for the cessation of the activities of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the militarised distribution of humanitarian aid that has generated a bloodbath in distribution lines in Gaza, which is a scandal, which is shameful, and has to stop,” Barrot told reporters after meeting his Cypriot counterpart in Nicosia.
Health authorities in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, have reported a growing number of deaths linked to hunger.
The Israeli government denies it is pursuing a policy of starvation – an act that could constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity under international law.
(with newswires)
