UK airdrops food aid into Gaza for first time

The UK has airdropped food supplies into Gaza for the first time as the Defence Secretary urged Israel to allow more aid into the war-torn territory.

The Royal Air Force parachuted more than 10 tonnes of aid, including water, rice, cooking oil, flour, tinned goods and baby formula to Gaza civilians on Monday.

An RAF A400M aircraft flew from Amman to drop the supplies along Gaza’s northern coastline as part of a Jordanian-led international aid mission, according to the Ministry of Defence.

Grant Shapps authorised the airdrop following an assessed reduction in threat to the military mission and risk to civilians.

The Defence Secretary said: “The UK has already tripled our aid budget to Gaza, but we want to go further in order to reduce human suffering. Today’s airdrop has provided a further way to deliver humanitarian support and I thank the RAF personnel involved in this essential mission, as well as our Jordanian partners for their leadership.

“The hell that was unleashed by the October 7 Hamas attack has led to wide-scale innocent loss of life. The UK’s goal is to use every route possible to deliver life-saving aid, whether that is by road, air or new routes via the sea.

“We also continue to call on Israel to provide port access and open more land crossings in order to increase incoming aid deliveries to Gaza.”

The aid delivery came on the day the UK backed a United Nations Security Council call for a ceasefire in Gaza during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Downing Street said the Security Council resolution – the first calling for a halt to the fighting – sent a clear message that the hostages held by Hamas should be released and aid should be allowed in to Gaza.

Amid warnings of an imminent famine in the war-torn Gaza Strip, the airdrop followed recent land deliveries of 2,000 tonnes of UK food aid to feed more than 275,000 people in the territory.

Monday’s delivery was the UK’s first ever mission delivering humanitarian aid by parachute, though Britain has previously supported international airdrops, providing some 600 parachutes at the request of Jordan and Bahrain.