The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) has criticized the air drops as “insufficient and inefficient.”
A Palestinian medic was killed on Monday after an airdropped aid box fell directly on his head in the Al-Zawayda area in the central Gaza Strip.
Odai Nafez Quraan, a nurse at the Al-Aqsa Hospital, was seen in a video recently condemning the aid drops.
🆕 Nurse Killed by Airdrop in Central Gaza Just Days After Warning of the Danger
Odai Nahed Al-Qeraan, a nurse at Al-Aqsa Hospital, was killed today when an airdropped aid package fell on him in the Al-Zawayda area, central Gaza, Healthcare Workers Watch report.
Just four days… pic.twitter.com/rAISHB8iFN
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) August 4, 2025
“This is a humiliation,” he said, adding that “if you able to fly in by air and drop aid by air, you are able to break the siege … by way of the land crossing.”
Specifically mentioning Egypt and Jordan, he pleaded, “For God’s sake, have mercy on us.”
Airdrops ‘Insufficient, Inefficient’
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) has criticized the air drops as “insufficient and inefficient.”
“Airdrops are at least 100 times more costly than trucks. Trucks carry twice as much aid as planes,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on X.
“If there is political will to allow airdrops – which are highly costly, insufficient and inefficient, there should be similar political will to open the road crossings,” he stressed. “As the people of Gaza are starving to death, the only way to respond to the famine is to flood Gaza with assistance.”
The Milk that Never Came: How Famine in Gaza Shatters the First Bond and the Soul of a Nation
Lazzarini pointed out that UNRWA has 6,000 trucks loaded with aid stuck outside Gaza waiting permission to enter.
During the ceasefire earlier this year, UNRWA and other UN agencies were able to bring in 500 to 600 trucks of aid each day, he said.
“Aid reached the entire population of Gaza in safety and dignity. It succeeded to reverse the deepening starvation without any aid diversion,” the UNRWA head said. “Let’s go back to what works & let us do our job.”
Over 1,000 Aid Seekers Killed
Since the end of May, more than 1,000 Palestinians seeking aid have been killed at or near aid distribution sites in Gaza run by the controversial US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Yesterday, Israeli occupation forces opened heavy and direct gunfire at Palestinian aid seekers near a GHF aid distribution point in Gaza, as they desperately sought food for their starved families.
The shooting resulted in multiple casualties among innocent civilians already… pic.twitter.com/MfwuaMK7TW
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) August 4, 2025
Between July 30 and 31 alone, 105 Palestinians were killed and at least 680 more were injured along the convoy routes in the Zikim area in North Gaza, southern Khan Younis, and in the vicinity of the GHF sites in Middle Gaza and Rafah, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OHCHR).
In total, the OHCHR said, since 27 May, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food; 859 in the vicinity of the GHF sites and 514 along the routes of food convoys.
‘Deceptive Step’ – Hamas
OHCHR noted that most of the killings were committed by the Israeli military, and that while it is aware of the presence of other armed elements in the same areas, it does not have information indicating their involvement in the killings, a UN News report stated.
“[The office] has no information that these Palestinians were directly participating in hostilities or posed any threat to Israeli security forces or other individuals. Each person killed or injured had been desperately struggling for survival, not only for themselves, but also for their families and dependents,” the UN Office said.
UN Humanitarian Chief Slams ‘Double Standards, Impunity’ over Gaza Genocide
The Palestinian Resistance Movement, Hamas, reportedly described the Israeli army’s resort to airdropping aid over areas of Gaza as a “formal and deceptive step,” aimed at “whitewashing its image before the world” amid the ongoing genocide in the besieged enclave.
At least 169 Palestinians, including children, have died of starvation and malnutrition due to the Israeli blockade in Gaza since October 2023, according to the latest figures from the Gaza Health Ministry.
Staggering Death Toll
Since Israel’s reneging on the ceasefire on March 18, it has killed and wounded thousands of Palestinians throughout the Gaza Strip through a bloody and ongoing aerial bombardment.
On October 7, 2023, following a Palestinian Resistance operation in southern Israel, the Israeli military launched a genocidal war against the Palestinians, killing over 60,000, wounding more than 147,000, with over 14,000 still missing.
The Israeli army continued its attacks on famine-stricken Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 56 people since dawn, including 17 aid-seekers, in a series of airstrikes and ground bombardments, according to medical sources.
Meanwhile, with 18,000 children… pic.twitter.com/4G7auyJBoQ
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) August 4, 2025
Despite habitual condemnation by many countries around the world of the Israeli genocide, little has been done to hold Israel accountable.
Israel is currently under investigation for the crime of genocide by the International Court of Justice, while accused war criminals — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — are now officially wanted by the International Criminal Court.
The Israeli genocide has been largely defended, supported, and financed by Washington and a few other Western powers.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
