Jordan, other countries could airdrop aid into Gaza as humanitarian crisis worsens

Yahoo

2 days ago

The Kingdom of Jordan will airdrop humanitarian aid into Gaza as Palestinians face widespread starvation and diplomatic talks over a ceasefire break down, a source familiar with the operation told ABC News.
Jordan's Royal Air Force will restart the drop by beginning to draw from a stockpile of 500 tons of food in Amman, the source said. Military aircraft will drop the food into designated drop zones, which are being coordinated with Israeli authorities, according to an Israeli security official.
The airdrops, an operation viewed by the humanitarian officials as a last resort, come as dire conditions in Gaza teeter toward a famine, which the United Nations warns is on the horizon.
MORE: 'They're losing hope': What doctors, aid workers are seeing in Gaza amid hunger crisis
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who appeared in Washington this week alongside the Jordanian Foreign Minister, ignored questions from ABC News about how the U.S. could improve the deteriorating humanitarian situation for Gaza and particularly for the enclave's children, who are starving at alarming rates.
President Donald Trump expressed frustration Friday morning after the U.S. and Israel recalled negotiating teams in the region Thursday, blaming gridlocked talks on Hamas and suggesting Israel would ramp up its war efforts.
"They pulled out in terms of negotiating," Trump said. "It was too bad [that] Hamas didn't really want to make a deal."
Hamas said Thursday it was "surprised" the US pulled back its negotiators, saying "mediators have expressed appreciation" for the terror group's "constructive and positive stance" in the talks.
Trump said diplomacy is at a point where Israel is "going to have to finish the job," suggesting military action as an answer. "You're going to have to get rid of" Hamas, he said.
Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said "alternative options" would be weighed to bring Israeli hostages held by Hamas home. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed Witkoff's sentiment, but neither elaborated on what the options were.
The president said aid is blocked by Hamas and that the U.S. "is going to do more" for the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
MORE: More than 30 killed at controversial foundation's aid distribution sites in Gaza: Health officials
Jordan's emergency humanitarian response would be joined by the United Arab Emirates, the Israel official said. Flights over Gaza coordinated by the Israel Defense Forces and COGAT, the Israeli organization in charge of facilitating aid into the Gaza Strip, could begin in the coming days, the Israeli source said.
The renewed airdrops are expected to surpass the scale of airdrops conducted by Jordan in 2024, which delivered over 1,000 tons of aid to Palestinians, the source familiar with the operation told ABC News.
Cases of severe malnutrition in children under 5 in Gaza have tripled in just two weeks, according to Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
At MSF clinics, 1 in 4 children who were screened -- as well as pregnant and breastfeeding women -- are malnourished, the emergency doctors say.
One in three people in the enclave, 70% of whose territory is controlled by Israel, have not eaten for multiple days in a row, the World Food Programme said this week.
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, the largest UN agency operating in Gaza, warned in a post on X that airdrops are the "most expensive and inefficient way to deliver aid," calling them a "distraction to the inaction."
Jordan conducted airdrops with US Central Command in the spring of 2024 in an effort to step up aid as the war in Gaza stretched into its sixth month.
Then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanked the Jordanian King in an April 2024 phone call, noting that the US-Jordanian airdrops delivered over 1,000 tons of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians.
MORE: More than 100 aid groups warn of 'mass starvation' in Gaza amid Israel's war with Hamas
The war is now just short of two years, and aid is limited to a trickle of aid convoys and distribution coordinated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed private company that has faced widespread criticism as its aid distribution points have been marked with violence and chaos since they began operating at the end of May.
Over 1,000 people have been killed at aid distribution sites since May, the UN has said.
Israel said it had initiated a review into an incident Sunday in which dozens of Palestinians were killed at an aid site after acknowledging troops fired near crowds. It said the probe was ongoing but a "preliminary review indicates that the reported number of casualties does not align with existing information."
Just over a third of aid trucks that entered Gaza between May 31 and June 2 were received by humanitarian organizations for distribution, the UN reported in June. The meager quantities of aid and GHF-run distribution sites are the only aid permitted by Israeli authorities.
Trucks flowed into Gaza across the Kerem Shalom border crossing over the past week, according to an Israeli security official, who said as many as 150 reached international organizations in Gaza on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The UN said that as many as 500 trucks entered the Strip on a daily basis before the outset of the war on Oct. 7, 2023.
The State Department said Thursday that Hamas was to blame for chaos and death at distribution sites and insufficient assistance reaching people in need.
Hamas has said in the past that Israel is not allowing sufficient aid into the Strip.
After the U.S. pulled a negotiating team meeting with Qataris intermediaries in Doha, Tommy Pigott, the State Department's Deputy Spokesperson, said ceasefire talks were not advancing because of Hamas, the terror organization whose October 7, 2023, attack on Israel initiated the war.
"This humanitarian conflict lies at the feet of Hamas, who could end this conflict today by releasing the hostages and laying down their arms," Pigott said.
The Jordanian Royal Air Force's C-130s, which conducted the drops in 2024 and can carry 14 tons of food each, will be tasked with the operation again, a source familiar with the matter told ABC News. The drops could include high-energy biscuits, each providing enough daily nutrients for a child. Two biscuits would sustain an adult for the day.
Aid organizations say children in Gaza are starving to death in increasing numbers. A statement from UNICEF, the UN's agency for children, points to more than four who reportedly died in the last 48 hours -- and note that some 80% of the deaths in Gaza from malnutrition have been children.
"These deaths are unconscionable - and could have been prevented," said Edouard Beigbeder, the agency's director for the Middle East.
"The UN-led humanitarian response must be allowed to function fully through unfettered aid access to children in need," he said.