President Joe Biden announced Friday that the U.S. military will work with Jordan to begin airdrop help to the starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Since it was proposed, this idea has drawn criticism from senior aid workers, who say airdrops are a costly and wasteful ploy to avoid addressing the political problems that cause hunger.
The charity Oxfam America, for example, issued a declaration He argued on Thursday that the airdrops would “mostly serve to raise the guilty consciences of senior US officials whose policies are contributing to the ongoing atrocities and risk of famine in Gaza.” Biden should instead “cut the flow” of American weapons to Israel.
Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International and a former disaster relief official in the Obama and Biden administrations, outlined the problems associated with airdrops in a PBS interview a day before Biden’s announcement.
“We only used them when we had absolutely no other choice, because they are the worst way to get help. They cost a lot of money, are difficult to assemble logistically, and get very little volume,” Konyndyk said. . “We only resort to airdrops because of blockades by the Israeli government.”
According to one study, air transport of food costs about $16,000 per ton, compared to the average $180 per ton needed to transport food aid by truck. American Air Force study since 2016.
Under pressure from the Biden administration, the Israeli government did so he opened a land passage in the Gaza Strip, but Israeli nationalist protesters did physically blocked the crossing several times. Meanwhile, goods entering Gaza from Egypt still have to go through the arduous Israeli border inspection process.
This was said by Sen. Chris van Hollen (D-Md.), who visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing in January THE New Yorker that some shipments were underway held at the border for 20 days, and having seen entire shipments rejected because they contained just one prohibited item, such as a tent with a metal pole.
The US government itself has admitted that hunger is a political problem, although it blames Hamas rather than Israel.
“It’s not a question of getting aid,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matt Miller told reporters Thursday. “There is a distribution problem inside Gaza right now because there are police officers, some of whom are Hamas members, who provide security for that distribution inside Gaza. And what Israel says is who have the legitimate right to prosecute Hamas. We would obviously prefer to see members of the security forces inside Gaza who are not members of Hamas.”
Inside the Gaza Strip, distribution has been chaotic. Riots broke out around humanitarian convoys and Hamas-affiliated police shot a teenager in an accident in December. Israeli forces did it too they bombed the police officers monitor aid convoys. US official David Satterfield said last month that attacks on Gaza police succeeded.”virtually impossible” to protect aid from “criminal gangs”.
The deadliest aid-related incident of the war, known as “flour massacre,” took place on Wednesday, when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians seeking help. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 112 people were killed. The Israeli army claims that its troops opened fire when Palestinians approached them in an unsafe manner, i.e. they shot caused only 10 victimsand that most of the deaths were caused by a stampede.
On that day, the Palestinian death toll from the war would exceed 30,000. Half a million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, a quarter of the population, are faced with imminent hungeraccording to United Nations officials.
In addition to announcing the launches, Biden said he was seeking an “immediate” six-week ceasefire and an “increase” in aid on the ground. He has so far resisted a’s request permanent end to war. When the war resumes, the aid that has cost Americans so much may soon be bombarded by American weapons.