Israel to allow foreign countries to parachute aid into Gaza

Donald Trump says Hamas did not want a peace deal as the US and Israel considers ‘alternative options’ to rescue hostages.

Humanitarian aid being airdropped into the Gaza Strip in March 2024. Picture: Amir Levy/Getty Images

Israel will allow Jordan and the United Arab Emirates to parachute food into Gaza as aid groups warned of surging numbers of malnourished children and Donald Trump lashed Hamas for refusing a ceasefire deal.

The aid air-drops will resume in “upcoming days”, an Israeli official confirmed after Doctors Without Borders said that a quarter of the young children and pregnant or breastfeeding mothers it had screened at its clinics last week were malnourished.

Hopes of a new ceasefire in Gaza faded this week when Israel and the United States quit indirect negotiations in Qatar with Mr Trump saying Hamas did not want a truce.

“It was too bad. Hamas didn’t really want to make a deal. I think they want to die,” the US President said.

“Now we’re down to the final hostages, and they know what happens after you get the final hostages. And basically because of that, they really didn’t want to make a deal.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said Hamas was obstructing a deal.

“Together with our US allies, we are now considering alternative options to bring our hostages home, end Hamas’s terror rule, and secure lasting peace for Israel and our region.”

Palestinians try to get food at a charity kitchen providing hot meals in Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City on June 18. Picture: Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP

With fears of mass starvation growing, Britain, France and Germany held an emergency call to push for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and discuss steps towards Palestinian statehood.

“We call on the Israeli government to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and urgently allow the UN and humanitarian NGOs to carry out their work in order to take action against starvation,” said a joint statement from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

““Withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable.

“Israel must uphold its obligations under international humanitarian law.”

Israel has rejected accusations it was responsible for the chronic shortage of food in Gaza, instead accusing Hamas of deliberately creating a crisis.

Mohammed al-Mutawaq, an 18-month-old Palestinian boy suffering from medical issues and displaying signs of malnutrition, lies on a mattress inside a tent in the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City on Thursday. Picture: Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP

Mr Macron said France would formally recognise a Palestinian state in September, with Anthony Albanese and the UK’s Sir Keir Starmer facing growing pressure within their parties to do the same.

Some 220 British MPs, including dozens from the ruling Labour party, demanded Friday that the UK government formally recognise a Palestinian state.

Mr Trump dismissed Mr Macron’s move as pointless.

“He’s a very good guy, I like him, but that statement doesn’t carry weight,” Mr Trump said.

Mr Netanyahu has long opposed a Palestinian state, calling it a security risk and a potential haven for “terrorists”.

On Wednesday, a large majority in Israel’s parliament passed a symbolic motion backing annexation of the occupied West Bank, the core of any future Palestinian state.

‘Mass starvation’

More than 100 aid and human rights groups warned this week that “mass starvation” was spreading in Gaza.

Israel has rejected accusations it is responsible for the deepening crisis, which the World Health Organisation has called “man-made”.

Israel placed the Gaza Strip under an aid blockade in March, which it only partially eased two months later.

A senior IDF official told Sky News UK on Friday: “Starting today, Israel will allow foreign countries to parachute aid into Gaza.

“Starting this afternoon, the WCK organisation began reactivating its kitchens.”

Aid group World Central Kitchen halted operation in Gaza in November after a number of its workers were killed in an Israeli air strike.

The Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been distributing aid since May. Witnesses, health officials and the UN human rights office say Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on crowds seeking aid from GHF, killing more than 1000 people.

Israel has refused to return to the former UN-led aid system, saying that it allowed Hamas to hijack aid for its own benefit.

Accusing Israel of the “weaponisation of food”, MSF said that: “Across screenings of children aged six months to five years old and pregnant and breastfeeding women, at MSF facilities last week, 25 per cent were malnourished.” It said malnutrition cases had quadrupled since May 18 at its Gaza City clinic and that the facility was enrolling 25 new malnourished patients every day.