German military aircraft have begun dropping aid over the Gaza Strip, the Defence Ministry said on Friday, as Berlin joins international efforts to relieve the dire humanitarian situation in the sealed-off Palestinian territory.
The transport aircraft dropped 34 pallets containing almost 14 metric tons of food and medical supplies, the ministry said.
The airdrops come amid outrage over the deteriorating conditions in Gaza, which the United Nations has warned is on the brink of famine.
However, aid organizations have criticized airborne relief efforts as largely symbolic, arguing that they are inefficient and incapable of meeting the massive needs on the ground.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged the limited impact of Germany’s contribution, calling the airdrops a “small” effort relative to the scale of the crisis. Still, he defended the mission as a necessary gesture.
“It is an important signal: We are there, we are in the region, we are helping,” he said earlier this week.
Israel has significantly restricted aid deliveries for months, allowing little to no humanitarian access to the coastal territory.
According to Israel, the aim is to increase pressure on the Palestinian extremist organization Hamas to release the remaining hostages abducted during the October 7, 2023, attacks, which triggered the 21-month-long war in Gaza.
Following intensifying global anger over the starvation occurring in Gaza, Israel began allowing larger land-based aid deliveries last Sunday and has supported allied countries — including Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — in conducting airdrops.
Germany is participating in the operation with two aircraft, loaded at a military base in Jordan.
“Gaza is currently lacking food and medicine above all else. For many people – including many children – it is a matter of sheer survival,” German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said.
The German Armed Forces also took part in aid flights over Gaza last year.
In March 2024, 316 tons of humanitarian supplies was dropped over the the area in 39 flights. Those missions were later suspended when alternative, more effective delivery routes became temporarily available.
Aid distribution chaos
Critics, including international aid organizations, continue to question the effectiveness of airdrops. They argue the method results in limited quantities reaching those in need compared to ground-based deliveries. In a densely populated area like Gaza, they warn, falling pallets can also pose serious risks of injury or death.
Unlike land-based aid convoys, airdropped supplies are difficult to distribute in a controlled or equitable manner. Vulnerable groups may struggle to access the aid.
Yet similar chaos is increasingly affecting lorry deliveries as well.
Witnesses and aid organizations report growing desperation among the population, with crowds frequently looting convoys before they can reach distribution centres.
Observers attribute the breakdown in order to the collapse of civil infrastructure amid the war and prolonged blockade, which has deepened the crisis.
Israel recently implemented a daily 10-hour “tactical pause in military activity” in areas of Gaza to allow more aid to reach people, including via aid convoys.
An airplane drops humanitarian aid over the Gaza Strip. Humanitarian aid was dropped into the Gaza Strip from the air for the fifth consecutive day on Thursday, with pallets of food parachuted into the blockaded coastal area amid a deadly hunger crisis. Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa