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Parachuting aid is expensive and inefficient, experts say, noting that at least five people in Gaza were killed in airdrop accidents last year.
July 29, 2025Updated 5:00 p.m. ET
Three countries have begun dropping boxes of aid by parachute into Gaza after Israel announced it would allow airdrops, and more are expected to follow. But aid experts warn that airdrops are dangerous and insufficient to tackle the widening hunger crisis there.
Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, said on Tuesday that “U.K. aid has been airdropped into Gaza today.” The United Arab Emirates and Jordan started parachuting parcels into Gaza on Sunday in coordination with Israel, according to the Israeli military agency that regulates humanitarian affairs in Gaza.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it expanded aid efforts to include airdrops to “improve the humanitarian response” and “refute false claims of intentional starvation in Gaza.” Israeli officials have disputed allegations that they have limited the number of trucks delivering aid to Gaza by road, blaming the United Nations and its partners for failing to distribute hundreds of truckloads in Gaza.
But aid agencies working in Gaza, 21 months into the war, say parachuting crates of aid is a risky and inefficient alternative.
“Why use airdrops when you can drive hundreds of trucks through the borders?” said Juliette Touma, the chief spokeswoman for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. “It’s much easier, more effective, faster, cheaper,” she added.
In a statement, Doctors Without Borders called airdrop parcels, which can weigh one ton or more, “notoriously ineffective and dangerous,” forcing people to “risk their lives for food.”
