Israel‘s military says airdrops of aid will begin Saturday night in Gaza, and humanitarian corridors will be established for United Nations convoys.
Gaza’s population of more than two million people is facing severe shortages of food and other essentials after some 21 months of war – particularly after Israel enacted a more than two-month-long blockade of the embattled Strip from March until May.
The UN previously condemned Israel’s ‘weaponisation of food’ in Gaza, labelling it a war crime, and on Monday the UK, France and more than twenty other Western-aligned countries issued labelling Israel’s operations ‘unacceptable’.
On Saturday, The IDF announced airdrops would ‘include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar and canned food to be provided by international organizations’.
They have yet to outline when the humanitarian corridors for U.N. convoys would open, or where. It also said the military is prepared to implement humanitarian pauses in densely populated areas.
Palestinians gather to receive food in Khan Yunis, Gaza amid shortages of aid
Smoke rises over Khan Yunis after an Israeli attack on southern Gaza, on July 22, 2025
Palestinian boy Mosab Al-Debs, 14, who is malnourished according to medics, lies on a bed at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, July 22, 2025
It comes after the UN’s human rights office reported Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food at aid distribution points since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) started its operations in late May.
GHF rejected the statistics, describing them as ‘false and exaggerated statistics’ from the United Nations, while an anonymous Israeli security official claimed Hamas were responsible for fabricating ‘cynical’ reports of mass starvation in Gaza to The Times of Israel.
