France will take 'greatest precautions to ensure safety of the population during these operations,' says French media
France will do airdrops of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip in the coming days to help alleviate its worsening humanitarian crisis, the French broadcaster BFM TV reported on Tuesday.
The decision comes as the besieged enclave faces what the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a UN-backed group, describes as the “worst-case scenario of famine."
France will take “the greatest precautions to ensure the safety of the population during these operations," diplomatic sources said, perhaps referring to the over 1,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces while seeking food from a controversial US- and Israeli-backed aid plan.
Authorities in Paris are also exploring the possibility of transporting aid overland to ensure quicker and larger deliveries. However, the sources emphasized that airdrops are no substitute for greater humanitarian access.
“These airdrops are not intended to replace a significant increase in aid volumes, which would require Israel to immediately open land crossing points,” one official said.
France, along with a host of other nations, has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and repeatedly urged Israel to open crossing points to allow unhindered humanitarian access.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 147 people have died of starvation since October 2023 – when Israel started its relentless offensive – including 88 children.
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless bombardment has devastated the enclave and led to a severe hunger crisis.
On Monday, Israeli rights groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, citing the systematic destruction of Palestinian society and the deliberate dismantling of the territory’s health care system.
