Tel Aviv [Israel], August 24 : The Israel Defence Forces on Sunday said that they conducted a humanitarian airdrop of food aid packages for the residents of Gaza.
As per the IDF, four countries- Jordan, the UAE, Germany, and Indonesia coordinated the airdrop, led by Israel's NGO COGAT (Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories: Judea and Samaria and towards the Gaza Strip).
In a post on X, IDF said, "4 Countries Coordinated Humanitarian Airdrop: An airdrop of 111 food aid packages for the residents of Gaza was conducted by the IDF in coordination with Jordan, the UAE, Germany, and Indonesia, led by COGAT."
https://x.com/IDF/status/1959580667097891073
https://x.com/IDF/status/1959513399865262139
https://x.com/cogatonline/status/1959508939734732857
As of Sunday, Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed 34 people, according to medical sources on the ground. Among the dead, nine were aid seekers, Al Jazeera reported.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, has issued a stark condemnation of the ongoing famine in Gaza, describing it as a preventable crisis fuelled by "systematic obstruction" by Israel and a collective global failure that will "haunt us all".
During a press briefing on Friday, after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed initiative, confirmed that famine is currently occurring in Gaza, Fletcher urged immediate action, including a ceasefire and unrestricted aid access, to avert further catastrophe.
While pointing to findings of the IPC report, Fletcher noted the human toll, highlighting how food aid is piling up at borders due to Israeli restrictions, creating a famine "within a few hundred metres of food, in a fertile land."
"Please read the IPC report, cover to cover. Read it in sorrow and in anger. Not as words and numbers but as names and lives. Be in no doubt that this is irrefutable testimony. It is a famine. The Gaza Famine. It is a famine that we could have prevented if we had been allowed. Yet food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel. It is a famine within a few hundred metres of food, in a fertile land," he stated.