http://archive.today/2025.07.25-161109/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-aid-airdrops.html

Israel said on Friday that it would soon allow other countries to drop aid from the air into the Gaza Strip during a widening humanitarian crisis in which several children have died of malnutrition.

Jordan and the United Arab Emirates were expected to begin airdrops in the coming days, according to COGAT, the Israeli military agency that regulates humanitarian affairs in Gaza.

Nearly one in three people in the territory is coping with food insecurity, according to the United Nations’ World Food Program. The Gaza health authorities say that acute malnutrition is rising and that children have died.

Airdrops are extremely expensive and typically as a last resort, said Juliette Touma, the chief spokeswoman for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. Thousands of truckloads of aid, she said, were awaiting Israeli approval to enter Gaza.

Israeli officials say they have not limited the number of trucks entering the territory, and they say the U.N. has failed to distribute hundreds of truckloads’ worth of food and other provisions from border crossings deeper into the Gaza Strip.

At least one recent attempt by the U.N. to bring food into Gaza led to chaotic scenes as Israeli soldiers shot at crowds of Palestinians rushing to seize bags of flour. Gaza health officials reported that dozens of people were killed and wounded.