Israel-Gaza war: starving Palestinians scramble for food aid drops as hunger worsens
- With Gazans increasingly desperate, foreign governments have turned to airdrops to meet basic humanitarian needs of people living in the territory
- UN chief Guterres said ‘Palestinians need a flood of aid, not trickles’ as the world body warned of famine in Gaza by May without urgent intervention
A military plane banked over the war-ravaged ruins of Gaza City dropping dozens of black parachutes carrying food aid.
On the ground, where almost no building within sight was still standing, hungry men and boys raced towards the beach where most of the aid seemed to have landed.
Dozens of them jostled intensely to get to the food, with scrums forming up and down the rubble-strewn dunes.
“People are dying just to get a can of tuna,” said Mohamad al-Sabaawi, carrying an almost empty bag on his shoulder, a young boy beside him.
“The situation is tragic, as if we are in a famine. What can we do? They mock us by giving us a small can of tuna.”
Aid groups say only a fraction of the supplies required to meet basic humanitarian needs have arrived in Gaza since October, while the UN has warned of famine in the north of the territory by May without urgent intervention.