IRC President Criticizes Air Aid Delivery to Gaza as 'Ineffective, Dehumanizing'
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The head of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), David Miliband, condemned the air delivery of aid to Gaza, branding it as unsafe and dehumanizing, and called for safer land routes for aid transportation.
"Such an approach is unsafe, ineffective, and dehumanizing," Miliband stated in a post on X, stressing the necessity of establishing secure land routes for the delivery of aid to ensure its safe and efficient transportation.
His remarks come amidst escalating Israeli attacks on aid seekers in Gaza, where they have resulted in numerous casualties among Palestinian civilians waiting for essential supplies.
The criticism follows a tragic incident on Thursday, where Israeli forces fired upon crowds awaiting aid in Gaza City, resulting in the deaths of at least 21 Palestinians and over 150 wounded, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health. Witnesses recounted the use of helicopters, tanks, and drones by Israeli forces in targeting civilians gathered at food distribution points.
This attack marks a series of assaults on vulnerable populations in Gaza, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis already gripping the enclave, due to a genocidal Israeli war. Earlier in the day, six Palestinians were killed at the same food distribution site, bringing the death toll from such incidents to over 400 people.
“The Israeli military carried out five separate attacks on aid distribution centres in the past 48 hours in the Gaza Strip, killing 56 people and injuring more than 300,” the media office of the enclave’s government said on Friday.
“We hold the US administration and the international community, in addition to the ‘Israeli’ occupation, fully responsible for the crime of genocide,” it said in a statement on Telegram.
The Israeli regime’s military denied that its forces had opened fire on the crowds and claimed instead that “armed Palestinians” were responsible for the attack.
Griffiths, the UN's emergency relief coordinator, condemned the Israeli violence, emphasizing the need for a safer and more dignified approach to aid distribution in Gaza.
"People should not have to die while trying to keep their families alive," he said in a post on X, adding that the Israeli forces shooting at Palestinians searching for food “cannot be allowed to continue”.
“Distributing aid in Gaza should be done in a safe, dignified and predictable manner. Anything less is unconscionable. The war must end,” Griffiths said.
With Israel’s war on Gaza now in its sixth month, the United Nations has warned that at least 576,000 people in the enclave – a quarter of the population – are on the brink of famine, and global pressure has been growing on Israel to allow more access to aid.
However, Israel's control over Gaza's crossings has severely restricted the flow of humanitarian assistance. UN agencies report that only one entry point has been operational since the beginning of the war, and trucks are subjected to "endless checking procedures" to pass through, which further complicates the delivery of crucial aid to the besieged enclave.
Faced with Israel’s obstruction of aid trucks, the international community has devised complicated workarounds, including a sea corridor from Cyprus to the besieged Strip and plans by the United States to set up a temporary jetty off Gaza’s coast to bring in supplies – a move criticized as an attempt to divert attention from Washington’s continued military and political support for Israel as famine looms and the onslaught persists.
