Pakistan to dispatch today 100 tons of humanitarian aid for Palestine
The development comes days after Israel allowed aid into Gaza and lifted months of blockade of the territory, following international outcry stoked by images of malnourished children, however, the scale is deemed woefully insufficient by international organizations.
Nearly 1,400 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip while waiting for aid since May 27, the majority by the Israeli army, the United Nations said on Friday. The Israeli army denies any targeting, insisting it only fires 'warning shots' when people approach too close to its positions.
The NDMA said it had completed preparations to send a 100-ton consignment carrying relief items for Palestine and the aid flight will depart from the Islamabad airport on Sunday evening.
'A hundred tons of aid will reach Amman, Jordan through a special flight,' it said. 'The aid consignment consists of food items and medicines.'
International organizations 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.
Pakistan, which does not have diplomatic ties with Israel, has consistently condemned Israeli military actions and called for the uninterrupted flow of humanitarian aid into Palestinian territory.
The South Asian country last month used its presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to refocus global attention on the crisis in Gaza.
'The NDMA will send a total of 200 tons of relief goods to Palestine through special flights,' it said, adding the authority had so far sent a total of 1,715 tons of aid to Palestine.
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A group of UN experts, including Fakhri, declared famine in Gaza in July 2024 after the first deaths from starvation were reported. Fakhri also published a UN report documenting Israel's long-standing control over food supplies in Gaza, a stranglehold that meant 80 percent of Gazans were aid-dependent even before the current siege started. Despite this, little action has been taken to stop what Fakhri described as a systematic campaign by Israeli authorities. 'Famine is always political, always predictable and always preventable,' he said. 'But there is no verb to famine. We don't famine people, we starve them — and that inevitably leads to famine if no political action is taken to avoid it. 'But to frame the mass starvation as a consequence of the most recent blockade is a misunderstanding of how starvation works and what's going on in Gaza. People don't all of a sudden starve, children don't wither away that quickly. This is because they have been deliberately weakened for so long. 'The State of Israel itself has used food as a weapon since its creation. It can and does loosen and tighten its starvation machine in response to pressure; it has been fine-tuning this for 25 years.' Netanyahu continues to deny such accusations, stating last week that 'there is no policy of starvation in Gaza.' But aid agencies, including UNICEF, say malnutrition has surged since March this year, when Israel reimposed a total blockade on the territory following the collapse of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. In May, Israel and the Trump administration backed the creation of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private logistics group that replaced hundreds of established UN aid hubs with just four distribution sites secured by private contractors and Israeli troops. On June 1, 32 people were reportedly killed trying to obtain food at the foundation's sites, followed by more than 1,300 others since then. 'This is using aid not for humanitarian purposes but to control populations, to move them, to humiliate and weaken people as part of their military tactics,' said Fakhri. 'The GHF is so frightening because it might be the new militarized dystopia of aid of the future.' The GHF has dismissed reports of deaths at its sites as 'false and exaggerated statistics,' and accuses the UN of failing to cooperate. 'If the UN and other groups would collaborate with us, we could end the starvation, desperation and violent incidents almost overnight,' a spokesperson for the foundation said. The deaths from starvation are in addition to at least 60,000 Palestinians reported killed by Israeli air and ground attacks since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023. Researchers say the true death toll is likely to be higher, though international media and observers remain barred from entering Gaza. Fakhri and other UN officials have urged governments and businesses to take concrete steps, including the introduction of international sanctions and the halting of arms sales, to stop the violence and famine. 'I see stronger political language, more condemnation, more plans proposed, but despite the change in rhetoric we're still in the phase of inaction,' he said. 'The politicians and corporations have no excuse; they're really shameful. 'The fact that millions of people are mobilizing in growing numbers shows that everyone in the world understands how many different countries, corporations and individuals are culpable.' The UN General Assembly must step in to deploy peacekeepers and provide escorts for humanitarian aid, Fakhri added. 'They have the majority of votes and, most importantly, millions of people are demanding this,' he said. 'Ordinary people are trying to break through an illegal blockade to deliver humanitarian aid, to implement international law their governments are failing to do. Why else do we have peacekeepers if not to end genocide and prevent starvation?' Special rapporteurs are part of what is known as the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council. They are independent experts who work on a voluntary basis, are not members of UN staff and are not paid for their work.
