RAF to drop aid into Gaza as Starmer calls starvation 'indefensible'

Work is under way between the UK and its allies, diplomatic sources tell The i Paper

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The UK is preparing to parachute aid into Gaza to help ease starvation among Palestinian civilians, including children, which has provoked global horror.

Diplomatic sources told The i Paper that work is under way between Britain and international allies to start dropping aid from aeroplanes after Israel said deliveries can start on Friday.

The Royal Air Force (RAF) is likely to lead British efforts, having previously carried out several parachute drops providing hundreds of tonnes of aid, including ready-to-eat meals, rice, tinned goods, and flour in 2024.

In the spring of that year, RAF A400M aircraft flew from Amman in Jordan, where aid pallets attached to parachutes were loaded onto the planes by British Air Force and Army personnel before being dropped along the northern coastline of Gaza.

The UK is understood to be in talks with the Jordanian authorities on getting planes loaded with food and into the air as soon as possible.

It is also believed that the UK will intensify efforts to get children in urgent need of medical help evacuated from Gaza to be brought to the UK for treatment.

Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called on Israel to “immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid” into Gaza.

“The humanitarian catastrophe that we are witnessing in Gaza must end now,” they said in a joint statement following a so-called E3 joint call between the trio.

“The most basic needs of the civilian population, including access to water and food, must be met without any further delay.

“Withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable.

“We call on the Israeli government to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and urgently allow the UN and humanitarian NGOs to carry out their work in order to take action against starvation.

Hundreds of Palestinians struggling with hunger wait in line for hours under the scorching heat to receive food aid at Nuseirat Camp in Gaza (Photo: Hassan Jedi/Anadolu/Getty)

“Israel must uphold its obligations under international humanitarian law.”

More than 100 people have died from starvation in Gaza since Israel cut off supplies in March, according to the local health ministry.

The blockade was partially lifted in May, but the world has since witnessed harrowing scenes of civilians being killed by Israeli forces while queuing for food, with the United Nations’ human rights office estimating more than 1,000 Palestinians died trying to get aid.

The UN’s children’s agency, Unicef, treated 5,000 children facing acute malnutrition in Gaza in the first two weeks of July, and World Health Organisation chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the enclave was suffering man-made mass starvation caused by Israel’s blockade.

Charities have warned they are seeing their own workers, as well as Palestinians, “waste away” amid the blockade.

But Israel has said it allows enough aid into the territory and faults delivery efforts by UN agencies, which in turn say they are hindered by Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of security.

Starmer, Macron, and Merz, meanwhile, pledged to “develop a specific and credible plan for the next phase in Gaza that will put in place transitional governance and security arrangements, and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid at scale”.

The leaders also agreed to make “steps towards a negotiated two-state solution” in the Middle East amid growing pressure from Cabinet ministers and Labour MPs on the Prime Minister to follow France in recognising Palestinian statehood now.

Following the call, Starmer condemned the “appalling” and “unrelenting” scenes in Gaza, including the “starvation and denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people” as well as the captivity of Israeli hostages.

He said: “The appalling scenes in Gaza are unrelenting. The continued captivity of hostages, the starvation and denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, the increasing violence from extremist settler groups, and Israel’s disproportionate military escalation in Gaza are all indefensible.”

It all comes as a letter was sent by 221 MPs from across the party spectrum was sent to the prime minister and Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Sunday, calling on the UK to officially recognise a Palestinian state.

Sarah Champion, the senior Labour MP who organised the letter, said recognition “would send a powerful symbolic message that we support the rights of the Palestinian people”.

Other senior Commons figures who signed the letter include Labour select committee chairs Liam Byrne, Dame Emily Thornberry and Ruth Cadbury.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey, as well as Tory former minister Kit Malthouse, and Sir Edward Leigh – Parliament’s longest-serving MP – also signed it.

The prime minister said that while he supports a Palestinian state, it must be part of a “wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis”.