A plane drops humanitarian aid above the Gaza Strip, seen from Israel
France has dropped this Friday from Jordan from food in the Gaza Strip, submitted for months by Israel to a total blockade.
“Faced with the absolute emergency, we have just conducted an operation to drop food in Gaza,” wrote President Emmanuel Macron, on network X.
“Thank you to our Jordanian, Emiriens and German partners for their support, as well as to our soldiers for their commitment,” he continues.
“Largages are not enough. It is necessary that Israel opens up full humanitarian access to respond to the risk of famine,” he added.
Speaking in Franceinfo in the morning, the French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, had indicated that 40 tonnes of food would be dropped on Gaza in several times.
“There will be several flights, four flights each carrying 10 tonnes of humanitarian freight from Jordan,” he said.
“It is an emergency aid, but it is obviously insufficient,” said Jean-Noël Barrot, stressing that “in the first half of July, no less than 5,000 children under the age of 5 have been admitted for care in acute malnutrition”.
The Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) framework, a world hunger surveillance body, warned Tuesday that a catastrophic famine scenario was taking shape in the Gaza Strip and that urgent measures were necessary to avoid a massacre.
The health authorities of Gaza, linked to Hamas, report on their side of an increasing number of people dying of causes linked to hunger.
For its part, the Israeli government denies a famine policy, likely to constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity.
Since 2023, France has sent nearly 1,200 tonnes of freight to the civilian population of Gaza, including food, medical equipment, electric generators, tents and covers.
France has also taken part six times in the European humanitarian air bridge (EUHAB) set up in mid-October 2023 by the European Union for Jordan and Egypt in order to transport humanitarian aid to Gaza.
This European air bridge has made it possible to organize more than 60 flights carrying more than 3,350 tonnes of humanitarian freight.
Most of the donations in kind has passed through Egypt and Jordan, via respectively the Egyptian Red Crescent (CRE) and the Jordan Hachemite Charity Organization (JHCO) who ensured customs clearance, storage and routing to Gaza, for the benefit of NGO partners and populations.
Part of this aid has still not entered Gaza due to the lack of an agreement from the Israeli authorities.
Germany drops 14 tonnes of aid
The Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, also began on Friday to drop humanitarian aid on Gaza, including two Luftwaffe flights carrying nearly 14 tonnes of supplies, the Ministry of Defense announced.
“Flights can only make a very small contribution to provide people affected on the ground the strictly necessary,” said Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, adding that he expected Israel “,” assures a complete humanitarian supply “for Palestinians living in the enclave.
Germany has also committed to pay an additional 5 million euros to support the World Food Program (PAM) in Gaza, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
(Written by Claude Chendjou, with Michel Rose’s contribution to Paris and Rachel More in Berlin, edited by Blandine Hénault and Augustin Turpin)