The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has criticized Israel's use of airdrops of aid in the Gaza Strip, saying the aid delivery mechanism "will not end" the worsening famine.
This came in statements made by Juliette Touma, the agency's director of media and communications, to the New York Times, and published on UNRWA's official X page on Sunday.
Touma's statements come as Tel Aviv promotes its permission for limited airdrops of aid to the Palestinian enclave, which is suffering from a raging famine. Trucks carrying aid and relief supplies are piling up at land crossings that Israel has closed since March 2.
The UN official questioned the feasibility of airdropping aid, saying, "Why use airdrops when we can transport hundreds of trucks across the border?"
She stressed that bringing in aid through land crossings is "much easier, more effective, faster, and less costly."
She stressed that airdrops of aid "will not end the worsening famine in Gaza," noting that 6,000 UNRWA trucks are backed up at land crossings "waiting for the green light" from Israel to enter the besieged enclave.
Addressing Tel Aviv, Touma continued: "Lift the siege, open the crossings, and guarantee safe movement (for aid convoys) and dignified access for those in need (in Gaza)."
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini previously considered the proposal to airdrop aid to the Gaza Strip "merely a distraction and smokescreen to cover up the reality of the humanitarian catastrophe in the Strip."
This comes as the Israeli military announced on Saturday that it had "permitted" the airdropping of limited quantities of aid into Gaza, and that it had begun what it called a "local tactical suspension of military activities" in specific areas of the Gaza Strip to allow the passage of humanitarian aid.
This Israeli move coincides with mounting regional and international pressure as a result of the worsening famine in the Gaza Strip and warnings of the threat of mass death threatening more than 100,000 children there.
The Gaza Strip is experiencing one of the worst humanitarian crises in its history, with a severe famine intertwined with a genocidal war waged by Israel since October 7, 2023.
The Israeli genocide, with American support, left more than 204,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 9,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and a famine that claimed the lives of many.
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UNRWA: Airdrops of aid to Gaza will not end the famine