The US and several Arab allies are in talks with Israel on organising aid flights to drop humanitarian assistance into Gaza to reduce the worsening hunger crisis gripping the enclave, sources told The National on Monday.
An Israeli official confirmed to The National that discussions were under way on airdropping supplies in Gaza. The official said Israel was talking to three countries on the issue, but he declined to identify them or give further details.
The sources said the talks began on Sunday in Cairo and Doha between representatives of Israel on one side and those of the US, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan on the other.
Egyptian and Israeli officials were discussing the proposal in Cairo, while Qatari officials were talking in Doha with Israeli delegates, they added. Remote discussions were being held with the other parties.
The sources did not say whether the talks were making progress but they coincided with continuing negotiations in the Qatari capital on proposals for a 60-day truce in the Gaza war as well as a hostages-for-prisoners swap and the flow of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
This would not mark the first time aid has been dropped since the war started in October, 2023, with the US, UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Britain and the Netherlands parachuting supplies. The airdrops were halted due to safety concerns.
The last airdrop was by the UAE in October last year, as part of Birds of Goodness operation.
In some cases, chasing and fighting over them by hungry Palestinians led to injuries and, in at least one case, caused one person to drown when they landed in the Mediterranean off Gaza's coast.
It was unclear whether the current consideration to return to humanitarian airdrops were looking into a different mechanism to avoid injuries and ensure a fair distribution of the dropped supplies. Despite the challenges of parachuting supplies and the safety concern, the fact that it is on the table as an option reflects the disastrous humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The UN's Palestinian aid agency UNRWA says Gaza residents are now suffering from malnutrition, with widespread food insecurity and starvation.
Ismail Al Thawabta, director of the government media office in Gaza, said the strip “has entered dangerous levels of deliberate famine, with no intervention from the international community”.
Dozens of children have died due to malnutrition since the start of the war, with a total of 620 people confirmed dead from starvation and lack of medicine, according to Gaza officials.
Underlining the despair among Gazans, the death of civilians seeking aid has become a regular occurrence in the tiny enclave, with the authorities blaming Israeli fire as crowds facing chronic shortages of food and other essentials flock in huge numbers to aid centres.
On Sunday, Israeli troops opened fire on crowds trying to collect humanitarian aid, killing 93 people and wounding dozens more in what was one of the bloodiest days for aid seekers in weeks.
The Palestinian Health Ministry on Monday said more than 1,000 aid seekers had been killed in May.
The Gaza war was caused by Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 that left about 1,200 people dead. The assailants also took about 250 others hostage of whom about 50 remain in captivity, including 20 who are believed to be still alive.
Israel's military response has killed nearly 59,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the ministry in Gaza.
Now in their third week, the Doha talks on a ceasefire have stalled after initially making progress. The issues which remain between Israel and Hamas include the extent of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, distribution of aid and the prominent Palestinians Hamas wants to see freed from Israeli prisons along with hundreds of others in return for releasing the hostages it has.
Thomas Helm in Jerusalem contributed to this report
