When Aid Masks Genocide

One afternoon in Gaza, the sky opens with parachutes of false hope. Families, not knowing if the sounds come from aid packages or bombs, peek out of their tents to glimpse at what they hope could be relief to their starvation: bundles of food falling from the sky. Seconds later, the hope turns to panic. The crates crash through the weak cloth that makes up the tents and onto the children below. Other groups were in a crowded alleyway, killing a prominent Gazan nurse who had just filmed a video denouncing the drops as "humiliation disguised as aid." Days before, pleading for help to end the starvation, he said, "If they can fly planes to drop aid, they can open the crossings and let trucks bring real help." His words ring harder after this death.

In 2025, after international humanitarian programs like UNRWA have not been allowed entry, this is the reality of Gaza. Instead of being delivered from the closed checkpoints, it falls without care from military planes, crushing shelters, starting stampedes, and creating fights between families over inadequate amounts of rice and flour. Far from stopping starvation, the aid has become a cruel way of trying to avoid international criticism: an instrument of distraction, hasbara, and oftentimes death for Palestinians.

These airdrops were announced (with partners in Jordan and the UAE) in late July 2025, and promised as "safe corridors" of humanitarian assistance. In reality, the program has been lethal. At least 124 people have been struck by the aid packages, with 23 Palestinians being outright killed. International human rights groups are also sounding an alarm, stating that the airdrops are "a humiliating spectacle that exacerbates suffering," emphasizing that only allowing land corridors to be opened would address the urgent need to stop the starvation. UNRWA, calling for the crossings to be opened, condemned the drops as being nowhere near being able to meet the needs of the Gaza population. As The Washington Post reports, the airdrops often weigh over 1,000 pounds, can easily go astray, and should only be used when there are "actual geographic barriers," such as flooding and earthquakes, that block roads.

This ineffective method of delivering aid comes when thousands of aid trucks, capable of alleviating the famine that haunts millions of Palestinians, sit idle at Israeli-controlled border checkpoints. More than 6,000 trucks filled with food and medicine are waiting outside Gaza, blocked by military checkpoints as the population starves. Under the pressure of falling aid crates with no targets, families are fighting with knives over the aid, with one woman recalling her elderly father nearly crushed by a bundle while others clawed at the box before rescuing him.

The tragedy and loss of life extend beyond the falling crates. On the ground, Israel and the U.S. have replaced international aid groups with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation(GHF): less of an organization to deliver aid, and more of a political tool where Palestinians are surveilled, having to walk for hours or days to reach the scarce and far-apart checkpoints, rarely receiving aid in inadequate provisions.

As civilians line up to receive access to food, the UN confirms that at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed. 859 of these were near GHF sites, and over 500 were near other convoys. For Israel, the strategy to get away with these killings has been designating areas less than 500 feet away from aid checkpoints as "combat zones," and then firing on civilians who inevitably gather there.

While military airdrops and food lines lined with blood may convince some otherwise, the easy solution to this crisis is ending Israel's illegal blockade. As the UN Secretary-General and numerous other organizations describe the famine, it is a purely man-made disaster caused by the deliberate Israeli denial of essential items for survival. Over half a million Palestinians are in conditions of starvation, where only 4% of households can access clean water, and food prices have increased by 4,000%. "I have a family of seven. The last time we had a real full meal was two weeks ago," says a Palestinian in Deir al Balah. Testimony from those inside Gaza paints the real picture. As a journalist from the Guardian described, "I saw devastated hospitals, mass graves, and bodies eaten by dogs in the street."

These distractions of "aid" aren't just ineffective; they are done to serve political goals. Continuing a genocide while having "humanitarian agencies" to point to gives the Israeli government a propaganda tool to hide the siege on the Gazan people. To avoid international criticism of the Israeli killing of journalists or attacks on schools, mosques, and hospitals, Israel points to the GHF.

To avoid calls for any international group to deliver aid, Israel and the U.S. government accuse UNRWA and other neutral distributors of accusing Hamas of "stealing their aid." But as the American government's own internal review found, there is no evidence of Hamas having a systematic program of stealing supplies. The purpose of the GHF model has always been control, not "efficiency."

In contrast, "theft of aid" has been committed by Israeli-backed groups in Gaza. Popular Forces, an Israeli-backed group, looted 98 out of 109 trucks carrying food through the Kerem Shalom crossing, showing how aid has been weaponized by the Israeli government, whether on air or ground.

Even aid workers are targeted. In April of 2024, vehicles carrying staff from the World Central Kitchen were struck by Israeli drones, killing staff members from the U.S., U.K., and Australia. Far from "accidental," the attack was cleared by Israeli military staff, making the strike an egregious violation of international law.

The attacks on Gaza have decimated the health infrastructure. Hospitals are run without electricity, surgeries are performed without any anesthesia on children, and diseases are spreading in densely packed camps. As illnesses caused by famine are overwhelming the already-lacking facilities in Gaza, doctors are being forced to choose which children to treat. As a Gazan doctor told the BBC, "Because of the shortage of painkillers, we leave patients to scream for hours and hours."

It's become undeniable that the reality for Palestinians has been genocide. Even groups within Israel, such as B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel, have described the starvation campaign as a form of such. As the Atlantic Council has reported, the limited distribution campaign in Gaza has been designed not to save Gaza, but to control it and deepen displacement.

As more than 80,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, with thousands more expected to die from hunger and disease in the coming months, we are seeing the outcome of the deliberate policy of extinction coming from the Israeli government. If the international community allows the genocide to continue, then we too will be complicit. Starvation, disease, and displacement are not accidental byproducts of war but purposeful outcomes of the system designed to erase a people while maintaining a facade of "humanitarian concern." What Gaza needs is not false hope through charity from the sky, but true justice on the ground: an end to the blockade, a ceasefire that stops the murdering of civilians, and respect for Palestinians' right to live in freedom. Until then, every crate that falls is not relief, it is a reminder of a world that has lost its humanity.