A Jordanian-French airstrike underlines the urgency of the Gazans’ needs.

Jordan and France dropped food and other humanitarian aid into Gaza on Monday, providing some much-needed aid to Palestinians facing looming famine, while aid groups warned of increasing restrictions on their ability to distribute supplies on the ground.

Three planes from the Jordanian air force and one from its French counterpart dropped relief supplies, including ready-made meals, over several locations on the Gaza coast, the Jordanian army said in a statement. rack. The French plane dropped more than two tons of food and hygiene supplies, all packed in containers fitted with parachutes, the French Foreign Ministry said.

Humanitarian groups generally drop aid into conflict areas only as a last resort, because airdrops pose significant logistical challenges and security risks. They are also less efficient and much more expensive than providing roadside assistance. For example, the two tons of aid dropped by the French plane represents far less than the capacity of a single truck and represents only a small part of the aid needed by the more than two million inhabitants of the enclave.

Still, France, which took part in an earlier airborne landing, said it was stepping up its work with Jordan because the “humanitarian situation in Gaza is absolutely urgent,” the report said. a statement from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“As a growing number of civilians in Gaza die of hunger and disease,” the statement said, “France emphasizes the urgent, compelling need to open the port of Ashdod, all border crossings and a land corridor from Jordan, which would be another effective way could be to open the port of Ashdod.” way to guarantee massive deliveries of humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

Jordan began airdrop assistance in November and has since completed more than a dozen missions, largely to supply its field hospitals in Gaza. In January, at least one airborne mission was conducted jointly with France, and two others provided assistance from the French Air Force The Netherlands And Britain.

Calls for internationally coordinated airdrops have increased as aid groups simultaneously warn that the hunger crisis in Gaza is reaching a tipping point and that some obstacles to traditional aid distribution have become insurmountable.

Last week, the World Food Program suspended food deliveries to northern Gaza, saying it could not operate safely despite the extreme needs there amid gunfire and the “collapse of civil order” in recent days. The WFP and other United Nations aid agencies have repeatedly warned that their access to northern Gaza was being systematically obstructed by Israeli authorities, and called on the government to ease restrictions. Israel has denied aid deliveries have been blocked.

The suspension of WFP deliveries in an area where they are needed most indicates that, despite many restrictions, airdrops may be one of the few viable options left to get food to northern Gaza quickly, according to Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Middle East policy analyst. who grew up in the enclave. Jordan’s airborne landings, he said, set a “critical precedent” for the feasibility of the approach.

“Simply wanting a ceasefire or simply wanting better Israeli cooperation” is not enough, Mr. Fouad Alkhatib said. “We need action now.”