An Israeli security official said on Friday that airdrops of aid into Gaza could be allowed in the coming days – something aid agencies have previously cautioned is an inefficient way to get supplies into Gaza.
While local media reported the United Arab Emirates and Jordan would carry out the latest drops, a senior Jordanian official told the BBC that its military was yet to receive permission from Israel to do so.
The UN has described the move as a “distraction to inaction” by the Israeli government.
The move came amid mounting international concern about humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
On Friday, Germany, France and the UK called on Israel to “immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid” into the territory.
In a joint statement, they called for an immediate end to the “humanitarian catastrophe that we are witnessing in Gaza,” and to the war itself, adding that Israel must “uphold its obligations under international humanitarian law”.
“Withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable,” read the statement.
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he could not “explain the level of indifference and inaction we see by too many in the international community – the lack of compassion, the lack of truth, the lack of humanity”.
Addressing the Amnesty International global assembly, he said more than 1,000 Palestinians had been killed while trying to access food since 27 May – when the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began distributing supplies as an alternative to the UN-led system.