Italy to begin Gaza air drops: foreign minister

Italy said Friday it would begin air drops over Gaza, which UN-backed experts say is slipping into famine, the latest European countries to do so.

“I have given the green light to a mission involving Army and Air Force assets for the transport and airdrop of basic necessities to civilians in Gaza, who have been severely affected by the ongoing conflict,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in a statement.

Italy’s air force will work with Jordan‘s military to air drop special containers containing essential goods, he said.

The first drops could come on August 9, he said.

Spain said Friday it had air-dropped 12 tonnes of food into Gaza, which UN-backed experts say is slipping into famine.

The mission deployed 24 parachutes, each capable of carrying 500 kilos (1,100 pounds) of food, for a total of 12 tonnes – enough for 11,000 people, said Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares.

Spain also has aid waiting to cross into Gaza by road from Egypt, the minister added in a video message posted on social network X, along with a video of the operation.

“The induced famine that the people of Gaza are suffering is a disgrace to all of humanity,” Albares said.

“Israel must open all land crossings permanently so that humanitarian aid can enter on a massive scale.”

Meanwhile, President Emmanuel Macron said Friday France had carried out its first airdrop of humanitarian supplies into Gaza, after UN-backed experts warn the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian territory was slipping into famine.

“Faced with an urgent humanitarian crisis, we just conducted a food airdrop over Gaza,” Macron said in English on X.

“But airdrops are not enough. Israel must grant full humanitarian access to address the risk of famine,” he said.

He thanked France’s Jordanian, Emirati, and German partners for their support.

Several tonnes of food supplies will be delivered to Gaza “over several days”, the French foreign and defence ministries said in a joint statement.

“France is also working on land transport, by far the most effective solution for the large-scale and unhindered delivery of humanitarian goods desperately needed by the population,” the statement added.

France will air-drop 40 tonnes of aid into Gaza from Friday, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said earlier this week.

The Western countries have recently partnered with Middle Eastern nations to deliver humanitarian supplies by air to the Palestinian enclave.

But the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees Philippe Lazzarini warned that airdrops alone would not avert the worsening hunger.

“Airdrops are at least 100 times more costly than trucks Trucks carry twice as much aid as planes,” he wrote on X.

Although Israel has in recent days allowed more aid trucks into the Gaza Strip, aid agencies say Israeli authorities could do much more to speed up border checks and open more border posts.

Concern has escalated in the past week about the situation in the Gaza Strip after more than 21 months of war, as UN-backed experts warned on Tuesday that a “worst-case scenario” famine was unfolding there that could not be reversed unless humanitarian groups got immediate and unimpeded access.