Thread by @EuroMedHR

🧵 Last night, the Israeli army began airdropping international aid over #Gaza after nearly 5 months of a suffocating blockade.

While they may appear as relief, these airdrops are deeply humiliating and reinforce the very starvation they claim to solve. Here's why 👇

1/7 Instead of relief, these airdrops injured at least 11 people and added to the suffering of a population already starved and displaced by Israel’s siege.

2/7 This step does not reflect a genuine shift in the humanitarian response. Rather, it aims to mislead international public opinion and downplay the severity of the crime, diverting attention from Israel’s systematic starvation policy in the Gaza Strip, which has caused an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.

3/7 In just one week, 55 people in Gaza officially died from starvation. Over the last two months, around 1,200 elderly people have died from hunger and lack of medical care as the health system collapses.

4/7 When airdrops were first introduced several months ago, even while the accessible area was relatively larger, they led to the deaths of 18 Palestinians and injuries to dozens more. Aid often lands on tents, in restricted zones, or in the sea. People risk their lives chasing these drops because they have no other option. Their desperation is being exploited, not relieved.

5/7 Addressing the starvation in Gaza cannot be achieved through superficial or gaudy measures but requires an immediate end to the blockade and the opening of safe, stable land corridors to enable the regular and sufficient delivery of food, medicine, and fuel.

6/7 The only real solution: safe, protected land corridors for aid delivery, under UN supervision. 400 aid centres once operated in Gaza before Israel dismantled them. They must be restored.

7/7 Anything less — including these air spectacles — is complicity in genocide. Airdrops aren’t about saving lives; they’re about masking a war crime and preserving control.

Gaza: Airdrops are humiliating and a tool of starvation – only land corridors can save lives
euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6804