Israel says it will allow foreign countries to air drop aid into Gaza as humanitarian crisis worsens
The Jordanian government confirmed the information to ITV News on Friday.
The news will bring relief amid the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where hunger is spreading and children have starved to death, causing alarm even among some of Israel's closest allies.
At least nine Palestinians have died from starvation in the past 24 hours, according to the director general of Gaza's health ministry. Two of them were children.
While the UN has said more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access food aid.
An open letter published on Thursday from more than 100 international aid agencies warned of "mass starvation" across Gaza, because Israel had blocked access to tons of food and medical supplies.
The letter stated that there were "tons" of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items and fuel sitting untouched within Gaza or just outside the region, but that organisations had been blocked from accessing or delivering the stock.
"Humanitarian agencies have the capacity and supplies to respond at scale, but with access denied, we are blocked from reaching those in need, including our own exhausted and starved teams," the letter read.
But Israel blamed UN agencies for failing to deliver food it had allowed in.
It accused NGOs of 'echoing Hamas' propaganda' and said about 4,500 aid trucks had been allowed into Gaza since May, and that more than 700 trucks were waiting to be picked up and distributed by the UN.
On Thursday, the UN's relief agency, Unwra, warned that parents in Gaza are "too hungry to care for their children," after the latest findings showed one in five children in Gaza City are now malnourished.
Unwra Chief, Philippe Lazzarini, said the organisation has the equivalent of 6,000 loaded trucks of food and medical supplies waiting in Jordan and Egypt.
The agency also said that 'people are being starved, while a few kilometres away supermarkets are loaded with food,' highlighting the stark reality between life in Israel and survival in Gaza.
Air drops are not the most efficient way to get lifesaving supplies to those in need, as they provide far less aid than truck deliveries, and are usually reserved for remote crises or to help those trapped behind enemy lines.
However, in Gaza, this method of delivery could overcome some of the extreme difficulties in getting aid, including political and security concerns.
Aid agencies have previously warned against air drops, as they can have unintended deadly consequences.
In 2024, a delivery killed five people in Gaza when a package's parachute failed to engage.
In March 2024, ITV News was on board a British RAF plane that participated in an aid drop into Gaza, carrying tonnes of desperately needed supplies to Palestinians.
Water, rice, cooking oil, flour, tinned food and baby formula were among the goods delivered via an A400M plane with a strategic airlift platform that was flown from Amman, Jordan.
This was the first time a British plane had taken part in one of the Gaza airdrops.
Those involved told ITV News it had taken weeks of work by 47 Air Despatch Squadron and 30 Squadron to get to this point.
The UK has also given thousands of UK-funded blankets, tents and other relief items, as well as the establishment of a full UK-funded field hospital in Gaza run by British charity UK-Med.
Gaza was already heavily dependent on aid and commercial shipments of food before Israel launched its war on Hamas.
Earlier this week, the UK, along with 25 other nations, accused Israel of " drip feeding" aid into the Gaza Strip.
The statement, signed by Foreign Secretary David Lammy, called on the Israeli government to lift restrictions on the flow of aid into the enclave.
"The Israeli government's denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable. Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law," it reads.
"We call on the Israeli government to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to urgently enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to do their life-saving work safely and effectively."
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