Gaza air drops: 'Any sense of order comes crashing down the moment it lands'
Something has to be seen to be done to stem the starvation in Gaza, and air drops look really good.
Gazans cheer when they see one approaching.
But then the race is on.Despite the sound of gunshots, everyone knows it's first-come, first-served; a free-for-all.
While the supplies are dispatched with military precision, any sense of order comes crashing down the moment the pallets land in the hellhole that is Gaza.
The strongest get stuck in and try to toss items to women relatives who are standing on the periphery of the melee."We don't want airdrops, we are getting virtually nothing and it's not fair," one woman told a local journalist filming for ITV News in Gaza."I have an old disabled man at home - only the people with knives get food here.'
As the items left to be retrieved become fewer, the competition becomes more intense - people fight for food like their lives depend on it.
The air drops are highlighting the extent to which chaos now reigns in Gaza, leaving many walking away empty-handed.
As we were filming, one woman dropped a bag of lentils, leaving her precious cargo scattered on the ground.
She started sifting through the dirt to retrieve them.
'We are trying to get rid of the sand and stones so we can feed the children," she told ITV News.
'Is this enough? Are you joking? They want to kill us or they want us to kill each other.'
As peace negotiations flounder, the whole sorry mess that is Gaza seems to be going from bad to worse.
As Israeli hostages are made to starve in tunnels, above-ground Gazans are forced to scrabble in the dirt for food.It's a graphic and distressing illustration of how much they need and how little they are getting.
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ITV News
a day ago
- ITV News
Gaza air drops: 'Any sense of order comes crashing down the moment it lands'
As the food crisis worsens in Gaza, ITV News has filmed desperate scenes surrounding the air drops of aid, showing just how scarce supplies are, as ITV News International Correspondent John Irvine reports. Something has to be seen to be done to stem the starvation in Gaza, and air drops look really good. Gazans cheer when they see one approaching. But then the race is the sound of gunshots, everyone knows it's first-come, first-served; a free-for-all. While the supplies are dispatched with military precision, any sense of order comes crashing down the moment the pallets land in the hellhole that is Gaza. The strongest get stuck in and try to toss items to women relatives who are standing on the periphery of the melee."We don't want airdrops, we are getting virtually nothing and it's not fair," one woman told a local journalist filming for ITV News in Gaza."I have an old disabled man at home - only the people with knives get food here.' As the items left to be retrieved become fewer, the competition becomes more intense - people fight for food like their lives depend on it. The air drops are highlighting the extent to which chaos now reigns in Gaza, leaving many walking away empty-handed. As we were filming, one woman dropped a bag of lentils, leaving her precious cargo scattered on the ground. She started sifting through the dirt to retrieve them. 'We are trying to get rid of the sand and stones so we can feed the children," she told ITV News. 'Is this enough? Are you joking? They want to kill us or they want us to kill each other.' As peace negotiations flounder, the whole sorry mess that is Gaza seems to be going from bad to worse. As Israeli hostages are made to starve in tunnels, above-ground Gazans are forced to scrabble in the dirt for a graphic and distressing illustration of how much they need and how little they are getting.
STV News
7 days ago
- STV News
Gaza air drops: 'Chancing the waves' for a packet of biscuits
ITV News International Editor Emma Murphy joins the Jordanian Air Force as it carries out an aid drop over Gaza From above it's impossible to see the detail, but such is the scale of Gaza's horror it's grotesquely obvious even from thousands of feet up. We approached Gaza over the Mediterranean. It is a jarring transition from the glittery beauty of a blue sea to the blackened, flattened landscape of war. Few buildings are still standing and even they are empty shells rendered derelict by battle. A landscape, once a place of life, now screams of death, an abyss of lives lost in a 21 month war. Around 60,000 people died in the land beneath and more are now dying, not just from the strikes and shells but from a lack of food. Aid has been airdropped into Gaza by the Jordanian Air Force. / Credit: AP Our journey towards Gaza was with the Jordanian Air Force in a C130 plane laden with parcels of aid. Basic food stuffs designed to sustain life for those who manage to find it. No one believes aid drops are the answer to the spiralling hunger crisis but it is a way to try and get some support in. Humanitarian aid has been airdropped over Gaza on Tuesday. / Credit: AP In Gaza, they are used to watching the skies more out of fear than hope and the sight of the planes sends hundreds running towards the drop zone. Our colleague Mohammed Abu Safia, ITV News' cameraman in Gaza, follows the desperate mass of people scrabbling to find any food. He sees men, women and children ploughing into the sea, a packet of biscuits or bag of flour worth chancing the waves for. Palestinians collecting aid that landed in the Mediterranean Sea after being airdropped. / Credit: AP Others forage through undergrowth battling each other to find something to feed their families with. If it's a choice between your child eating and someone else's, the niceties are gone. We cannot land in Gaza and international journalists are banned by Israel so this was the closest we could get to document what is going on in Gaza. As we made the turn back towards Jordan and its plenty, the lucky few beneath hurried away with food as valuable as treasure. While those who did not find any contemplated another night of hunger. Maybe tomorrow they will be luckier. What a way to live, what a way to die. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Metro
28-07-2025
- Metro
Gaza becomes 'most expensive place to eat in the world'
'Where in the world is food more expensive than London, Dubai, and New York?' It sounds like a setup to a cheap joke but the harrowing answer is Gaza. Under a suffocating Israeli blockade, food, fuel and humanitarian aid have become luxuries for Palestinians. The result? People are starving. Not metaphorically, not gradually – literally. What little food remains has been pushed to black-market extremities, as shown by prices shared with Metro by Christian Aid workers on the ground. A 25kg sack of flour is now more expensive than a Michelin-star dinner in Paris, costing as much as £414, compared to £8.80 before the start of the war. A kilogram of sugar is £88, in stark contrast with the price of £0.60 less than two years ago. Staples like oil, bread and eggs – when available – have all become entirely out of reach for Palestinians. Speaking of the impact of the unfolding famine, Ranin Awad who works for Christian Aid's local partner in Gaza, Women's Affairs Centre (WAC), said: 'My colleagues and I only eat one meal a day, depending on what we can afford and what is available. We are dealing with fatigue, dizziness, and overwhelming weakness. 'Recent months have been filled with death, fear and displacement. It is like a nightmare that has devastated our hopes, memories, and houses. 'Our home was destroyed and we were forced to flee many times. All of our memories have been obliterated. 'My son was just a month old when the war began. He had a new, lovely room with pretty furniture and toys. There is nothing left for him now, all is ash.' Gaza's Health Ministry has recorded six more deaths in the past 24 hours due to famine and malnutrition, including two children. This brings the total number of starvation deaths to 133, which included 87 children. Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), said: 'People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses.' He said that one in five children in Gaza City is malnourished – a number increasing every day that unhindered humanitarian aid is denied. In a post on X, Lazzarini warned: 'When child malnutrition surges, coping mechanisms fail, access to food and care disappears, and famine silently begins to unfold. 'Most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying if they do not get the treatment they urgently need.' Amid the starvation, Egyptians have launched an initiative called 'From sea to sea – a bottle of hope for Gaza'. Plastic bottles are being filled with grains, rice and lentils and hurled into the Mediterranean Sea in the hope that they will reach the enclave – even though the Israeli Defence Forces have banned Palestinians from entering the water. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video While largely symbolic – aimed at highlighting Israel's purposeful starvation of civilians, several bottles appear to have reached Gaza. A video shared on TikTok by creator Saqer Abu Saqr, from the north of the enclave, shows him thanking Egyptians for sending him a bottle filled with yellow lentils. Waving the gift, he says: 'This came by the sea from the young people in Egypt. Thank you, may Allah bless you.' Another Palestinian creator with some 2.5 million followers on Instagram, Mohamed Al Khalidi, shared a video titled 'The most expensive city in the world.' Walking through Gaza City's crumbling streets, Mohamed highlights some of the prices of basic goods – £37 for a kilogram of flour, £66 for a kilogram of sugar, and £22 for a kilogram of lentils. He says: 'The famine is intensifying significantly. Even the simplest items now cost 10 times their normal price, and only a few things are available. Everything is scarce. I keep thinking about those who have no money at all.' Israel has been facing growing criticism over the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as indirect ceasefire talks in Doha between Israel and Hamas have broken off with no deal in sight. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the United Nations over the weekend to stop blaming his government for what the WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described as 'man-made mass starvation'. This came hours after the military said it would pause operations for 10 hours a day in three areas – Al Mawasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City – and permit new aid corridors. Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdropped 25 tonnes of food and supplies to the enclave – which is still less than what one of the hundreds of humanitarian aid trucks stuck outside of Gaza could bring in if allowed. But Lazzarini stressed that aid airdrops will not reverse the starvation and added: 'They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians. It is a distraction and screensmoke. More Trending 'A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements and dignified access to people in need. 'Allow the UN including UNRWA and our partners to operate at scale and without bureaucratic or political hurdles. 'At UNRWA, we have the equivalent of 6,000 trucks in Jordan and Egypt waiting for the green light to get into Gaza. 'Driving aid through is much easier, more effective, faster, cheaper and safer. It's more dignified for the people of Gaza.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: What's stopping Keir Starmer from recognising Palestine as a state? 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