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1/ The most vulnerable people are the least likely to benefit from airdrops. When humanitarian agencies distribute aid on the ground, we take steps to ensure that it reaches the most vulnerable groups, such as older people, people with disabilities, pregnant women and orphaned children. But when aid is dropped from the air it’s impossible to ensure where it falls, so it’s often the strongest and fastest who reach it first – especially when, as in Gaza, the humanitarian system on the ground is systematically obstructed. People who are severely malnourished cannot chase after airdrops.
2/ Airdrops make aid diversion more likely. Israel claims, despite clear evidence to the contrary, that it has shut the land crossings due to aid diversion. But airdropped aid – with little or no control over where it falls or who gets it – is far more likely to end up in the wrong hands than when there are professionally managed land distributions.
3/ Airdrops cannot provide the quantity of aid that is needed. The Israeli government claims 52 tons of aid was airdropped into Gaza one day this week – that’s equivalent to about two truckloads coming in by land. Even before October 2023, about 5-600 trucks entered Gaza every day with humanitarian and commercial supplies, and now far more is needed. A day’s airdrops barely provide a few minutes’ worth of aid. The existing land routes are proven to get aid in in much greater quantity, if Israeli obstructions are removed.
4/ Airdrops cannot provide the type of aid that is needed. Getting food into Gaza is vital but it is not the only thing needed. Malnourished children need specialist treatment and therapeutic care, not just food packs. These airdrops will not save their lives without proper medical care. Many communities have said they have been unable to use the aid delivered in recent days as it requires water or cooking gas that they do not have. People also desperately need medicine, fuel and other supplies.
5/ Airdropping aid has turned lethal. When aid was airdropped into Gaza last year, numerous civilians were killed by food boxes or pallets dropped from the sky – the same boxes meant to save them. Other people drowned trying to retrieve aid that was dropped into the sea, while other aid was dropped in the middle of heavy fighting or near unexploded ordnance. Already in the past few days more people have been wounded by airdropped supplies.
6/ Humanitarian aid alone can’t address the magnitude of this crisis. To ensure that food and other essentials are available and affordable for most people, it is vital that commercial supplies are also allowed to enter Gaza. Throughout this crisis and before, commercial supplies have been vital for ensuring that food is available in markets. But these supplies can only come in overland, not through airdrops.
7/ Airdrops are the most expensive and inefficient way to deliver aid. While there can’t be a price on saving lives, the fact is that airdropping aid is far more expensive than sending aid in by land, and has far less impact. Airdrops are prohibitively expensive in the long-term.
8/ Airdrops are a last resort – but only in certain circumstances. Airdrops are sometimes used when there is simply no other option – usually only when trying to reach remote and inaccessible locations where roads are flooded or destroyed by natural disasters. This is not the case in Gaza, where land access is possible and much more effective. Overland aid to Gaza could be massively scaled up tomorrow, if Israel opens the crossings.
9/ Israel continues to block aid coming in by land. The recent Israeli announcement of temporary corridors and ‘tactical pauses’ is welcome but far from enough and has so far made no real difference to the situation on the ground. The amount of aid getting in overland since then is just a tiny drop in the ocean compared to what is needed. A few extra trucks for a few days won’t stop famine in Gaza, nor will a few airdrops.
10/ Airdrops are a distraction from the real solution. Throughout this crisis we have seen valuable time and political energy spent pursuing Israeli-encouraged distractions such as airdrops and last year’s failed seaport – which cost $230 million, delivered almost no aid, and shut down months later when the humanitarian situation was even worse. There is an understandable temptation to consider such initiatives as “better than nothing” but they can do harm by deflecting international pressure and focus away from the only solution that can address the magnitude of this crisis: fully reopening all land crossings for humanitarian aid and commercial supplies, and full and unobstructed humanitarian access within Gaza.