Middle East: Israel to airdrop aid into Gaza

07/26/2025July 26, 2025

Israel to airdrop aid into Gaza Strip

The Israeli military announced that airdrops of aid to Gaza would resume and that humanitarian corridors would be established for United Nations convoys.

"The airdrops will include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food to be provided by international organizations," it said in a statement.

The military's statement did not specify when the humanitarian corridors would open or where.

It said that the military "emphasizes that combat operations have not ceased" in Gaza against Hamas.

The statement also added that there is "no starvation" in the territory.

International health and aid organizations have repeatedly raised concerns about the dire conditions and severe shortage of essential supplies in Gaza during the 21-month conflict.

Experts have also criticized airdrops of aid as vastly insufficient for the millions of Palestinians in Gaza in desperate need of food, water, medicine and other supplies.

Before the start of the war in Gaza, 500 truckloads of goods crossed into the Palestinian territory each day, according to the United Nations.

07/26/2025July 26, 2025

UAE to resume airdrop operations to Gaza

The Emirati foreign minister said on Saturday that the United Arab Emirates will resume airdrops to deliver aid to Gaza at once.

"The humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached a critical and unprecedented level," Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan posted on X.

"We will ensure essential aid reaches those most in need, whether through land, air or sea. Airdrops are resuming once more, immediately." 

His remarks follow Israel's announcement on Friday that it would allow airdrops of aid by foreign countries into Gaza to alleviate starvation in the Palestinian territory.

07/26/2025July 26, 2025

WATCH — Israel: Frustration grows over lack of progress on hostages

The relatives of 50 hostages still in Gaza are growing more frustrated.

Some are losing faith that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will ever strike a deal to bring them home.

DW's Tania Krämer met Yehuda Cohen in front of the Likud party's Tel Aviv headquarters at a sit-in organized by families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. His son, Nimrod, has been held captive for 22 months.

07/26/2025July 26, 2025

UK and Jordan working on Gaza air-drop plan

The United Kingdom is working with Middle Eastern allies including Jordan on plans to airdrop aid into the Gaza Strip and evacuate children in need of medical care, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office said on Saturday.

"The prime minister set out how the UK will be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance," read a statement after Starmer held a three-way phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

During the conversation, the three leaders agreed that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was "appalling" and that it would be "vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently needed ceasefire into lasting peace," according to the Downing Street readout.

"They discussed their intention to work closely together on a plan ... which would pave the way to a long-term solution and security in the region," it continued. "They agreed that once this plan was worked up, they would seek to bring in other key partners, including in the region, to advance it."

In Berlin, Chancellor Merz's office spoke of "large agreement" on the call – despite Germany so far refusing to criticize Israel to the extent that the UK and France have done, with the latter even set to officially recognize Palestinian statehood later this year.

"We will be coordinating very closely in the coming days to take the next steps," said Merz.

The phone call came a day after United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres slammed the international community for turning a blind eye to widespread starvation in the Gaza Strip, calling it a "moral crisis that challenges the global conscience."

For the first time in months, Israel said it is allowing airdrops, requested by neighboring Jordan. An official in Amman said the airdrops will mainly be food and milk formula.

But the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, warned on social media that airdrops are "expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians" and won't reverse the increasing starvation or prevent aid diversion.

"A man-made hunger can only be addressed by political will," he said, demanding: "Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements and dignified access to people in need."

07/26/2025July 26, 2025

Dozens of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces waiting for aid

Some 40 people died while trying to access humanitarian aid, including 16 who were shot by Israeli forces, in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, according to local Palestinian authorities and medics.

Doctors at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said that 16 people were killed and another 300 injured near the northern Zikim border crossing waiting for trucks carrying aid.

One witness told the AFP news agency that Israeli troops opened fire "while the people were waiting to approach the distribution point." The Israeli military told AFP that its troops fired "warning shots to distance the crowd" after identifying an unspecified "immediate threat."

Elsewhere, Gaza's Hamas-run civil defense agency said nine people were killed in three separate Israeli air strikes in Gaza City, eleven in four separate strikes near the southern city of Khan Yunis and two in a drone strike in Nuseirat refugee camp.

07/26/2025July 26, 2025

Hamas rejects Trump remarks on Gaza talks breakdown

The Palestinian militant group Hamas expressed surprise on Saturday at suggestions from US President Donald Trump that the group "didn't really want" a ceasefire and hostage release deal for Gaza.

Trump made the allegation on Friday after Israel and the United States walked out of indirect negotiations with Hamas in Qatar that had lasted nearly three weeks.

"Trump's remarks are particularly surprising, especially as they come at a time when progress had been made on some of the negotiation files," said a spokesman for the Islamist group which launched the deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the current conflict.

"So far, we have not been informed of any issues regarding the files under discussion in the indirect ceasefire negotiations", he added.

Though not part of the Hamas negotiating team, Hamas politburo member Izzat al-Rishq insisted the group had shown "flexibility" in the talks, but Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff accused Hamas of not "acting in good faith."

07/26/2025July 26, 2025

Welcome to our coverage

Matt Ford | Jenipher Camino Gonzalez

Hello and welcome to DW's coverage of developments in Gaza, Israel and the wider Middle East on Saturday, July 26.

In a three-way conversation with his French and German counterparts, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the United Kingdom was working with regional partners such as Jordan on a plan to airdrop aid into the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, medics and Hamas officials said that dozens more Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire, some while waiting for humanitarian aid.