Call To Action: Prioritize Safe And Dignified Aid Delivery In Gaza

Following a rapid decline in the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including widespread starvation, on 26th July 2025 Israel announced the creation of humanitarian corridors and the commencement of airdrops of a limited quantity of food into the Gaza Strip. The Protection Cluster welcomes the establishment of humanitarian corridors and humanitarian pauses. However, the airdrops are an inadequate alternative to principled and coordinated humanitarian delivery; they pose risk of harm to civilians including death or injury, result in inequitable distribution and exclusion of vulnerable groups most in need including women, children, older persons, sick, injured and persons with disabilities, include high risk of diversion, undermine humanitarian principles, compromise dignity of the affected population, are insufficient in scale to meet the extensive needs inside Gaza, and risk deflecting from legal obligations of Israel to facilitate meaningful humanitarian access.

24 hours after the initiation of the airdrops, community members across the Gaza Strip report ongoing harm. Communities are reporting injuries, collapse of homes, full exclusion of vulnerable groups, and a sense of loss of dignity from the process. Aid dropped during the night on 27th July is reported to have landed on tents, injuring residents, and in damaged buildings and areas affected by heavy bombardment, exposing people attempting to reach it to risk of injury or death by explosive ordnance.

According to one mother in Al Karama east of Gaza City, an airdropped pallet hit the roof of her home, causing the roof to collapse. Immediately following the impact, a group of people armed with knives rushed towards the house, while the mother locked herself and her children in the remaining room to protect her family. They did not receive any assistance and are fearful for their safety.                                                                          

Amidst the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the urgent need to ensure rapid delivery of lifesaving assistance at scale across all of the Strip, the Protection Cluster is alarmed by this modality that is normally applied globally only as last resort either during natural disasters or when entry of aid is impossible. During this humanitarian pause, the OPT Protection Cluster urges all Member States to support the immediate restoration of full, unimpeded humanitarian access and delivery of assistance through the established, coordinated, and principled channels. The use of airdrops as implemented last night in densely populated areas of Gaza is not only insufficient to meet the volume of need – it is dangerous, inequitable, unpredictable and unsustainable.

The humanitarian community has been clear: aid must flow through the United Nations-led coordinated mechanism to ensure that assistance is:

• Delivered at scale, and predictably, through land routes that can carry the quantity of aid required;
• Distributed equitably to all people in need, especially the most vulnerable;
• Implemented safely and with accountability, ensuring no diversion to armed actors;
• Aligned with humanitarian principles and Do No Harm.

Airdrops cannot replace the essential functions of humanitarian actors on the ground who can assess needs, protect civilians, and ensure aid reaches the right hands while mitigating further risks of abuse and exploitation, especially for women and children, in such dire conditions.

The Protection Cluster calls on Member States urgently to:

1. Use diplomatic and political influence to demand Israel open land crossings into the Gaza Strip and facilitate sustained, safe, and predictable access for humanitarian convoys.
2. Support the United Nations-led humanitarian coordination system, which is best placed to deliver impartial, accountable, and need-based assistance rapidly across Gaza.
3. Reject alternative solutions including militarized delivery of aid that bypass coordination, undermine humanitarian principles, and put communities at risk.
4. Continue to demand respect for international humanitarian law and take concrete steps to ensure that Israel, the occupying power in Gaza, complies with its obligation to ensure sufficient food, lifesaving necessities and protection are provided to the population.