Middle East: Germany announces plan to airlift aid to Gaza

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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that Spain will airdrop 12 tons of food aid into Gaza from Jordan later this week, via Spanish air force planes.

Sánchez acknowledged this isn’t a solution to hunger, but hopes it offers “minimal relief” alongside aid from other nations.

Spain’s government has been a vocal critic of Israel's actions in Gaza and has repeatedly called for a ceasefire.

Airdrops have been widely criticized by international organizations including the UN for failing to meet needs.

The average truck that enters Gaza with humanitarian aid carries around 19 tons of aid, according to COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating humanitarian aid in Gaza.

US President Donald Trump on Monday directly contradicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by telling reporters in the UK that the people of Gaza are facing "real starvation" as the result of Israel's military campaign and its approach to the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Aid agencies have been kept out of Gaza for months, with the exception of the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — a US-run, Israeli backed organization that has faced criticism for its inability to feed those civilians trapped in the enclave. 

"We're going to be getting some good strong food, we can save a lot of people. I mean, some of those kids— that's real starvation stuff," Trump told reporters at a news conference in Scotland with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

"We have to help on a humanitarian basis before we do anything. We have to get the kids fed," Trump said.

Israel recently announced a "tactical pause" in its military operations against the Islamist group Hamas, potentially allowing aid organizations to deliver food.

On Sunday, Netanyahu, speaking in Jerusalem alongside Trump's spiritual advisor Paula White-Cain, said, "There is no starvation in Gaza, no policy of starvation in Gaza."

The leaders of Israeli rights organization B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) have spoken to the press about their new investigation that found the Israeli government to be committing genocide in Gaza.

"Nothing prepares you for the realization that you are part of a society committing genocide. This is a deeply painful moment for us," said B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak.

"After decades of separation, and of dehumanization of Palestinians, the horrors of the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, created deep existential fear among Israelis. The extremist, far-right messianic government is using that fear to promote an agenda of destruction and expulsion," Novak said.

The lives of Palestinians "are being treated as worthless. They can be starved, killed, displaced – and the situation keeps getting worse. The world must stop the crimes Israel is committing now," he stressed.

Dr. Guy Shalev, Executive Director of PHRI, added that "Israel is knowingly destroying Gaza’s health system. As people who believe in the sanctity of life, we are obligated to speak the truth: this is genocide, and we must fight it. For 22 months, hospital after hospital has been attacked, patients have been denied life-saving treatment, and aid has been blocked."

"This is a clear and consistent pattern of destruction. It is our duty as medical professionals, and to our colleagues in Gaza who are risking their lives to save others under impossible conditions, to face the truth and do everything we can to protect them," he said.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday that Berlin plans to establish an airlift to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip with the support of Jordan.

"We know that this can only be a very small help for the people in Gaza," Merz said, adding it is "a contribution we are happy to make." 

"We want to end the humanitarian suffering of the civilian population in Gaza as quickly as possible," Merz said. "We want the weapons in Gaza to fall silent immediately. Above all, we want our friends in Israel to finally find peace after the horrific events of October 7, 2023, and to be able to live in lasting security and peace."

Jordan has served as a hub for aid deliveries to Gaza and has parachuted food into the territory for the past two days.

The Israeli army began dropping aid supplies in the Gaza Strip over the weekend. It also announced the establishment of "humanitarian corridors" for trucks carrying aid supplies.

Israel has been accused of engineering the starvation it now seeks to ease by dropping the aid into Gaza.

Severe shortages of food and water in the sealed-off Palestinian territory have prompted warnings from UN agencies of "catastrophic hunger."

The Israeli government has said an additional 180 trucks carrying aid have now entered Gaza. 

COGAT, the Israeli military unit responsible for approving and coordinating aid, wrote on X that the trucks are "now awaiting collection and distribution."

It comes after 120 trucks were allowed to enter Gaza on Sunday. 

UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher told the BBC that the aid deliveries were welcome, but a "drop in the ocean" compared to what's needed. 

France's foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot made the comment on Monday as he opened a United Nations (UN) conference dedicated to a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. 

"Only a political, two-state solution will help respond to the legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security. There is no alternative," he said.

Barrot and his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan are co-chairing the conference. 

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also condemned Israel’s "creeping annexation" of the West Bank, saying it is "illegal" and that the "wholesale destruction of Gaza is intolerable." He said that both must stop. 

On a two-state solution Guterres said, "Unilateral actions that would forever undermine the two-state solution are unacceptable. They must stop."

Israel and the US are boycotting the meeting, with the US calling the meeting "counterproductive."

The European Commission is discussing a proposal today to partially suspend Israel's access to the Horizon research program. 

The proposal was mentioned in an agenda published by the Commission. 

Israel has been participating in the EU's research programs since 1996. Horizon Europeis a $93.5 billion research fund open for the period 2021-2027. Earlier this year, the Israel Innovation Authority reported that Israeli researchers and companies have secured grants totalling more than $1.1 billion between 2021-2024.

This comes after several EU countries last week called for more pressure on Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. EU countries asked the Commission to put more options on the table, as they said Israel was not living up to its commitments on increasing aid. 

EU and Israeli officials had no comment on the proposal. 

US President Donald Trump said on a visit to the UK that he had discussed increased aid to Gaza with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and that he was also going to ask British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to join the effort when they met later on Monday.

He also added that he felt a ceasefire in Gaza was "possible" a day after he spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu over the phone.

Trump said that he told Netanyahu his current course of action against Hamas wasn't working, and that he needed to try something "different."

The president had expressed concern over the weekend at the level of malnutrition in Gaza, which he reiterated to journalists ahead of the meeting with Starmer.

At the same time, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called on Trump to use his considerable influence — US aid is essential to the Israeli military — to "exert all efforts to end this war and allow the entry of aid."

Jerusalem-based human rights NGO B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) have presented their findings following an investigation into the conduct of the Israeli government and the military in the Gaza Strip.

The B'Tselem report points to a decisive shift in policy following the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israeli civilians by Hamas. While purporting to be fighting only Hamas, the report found, the government was engaging in a policy of "mass killing, both in direct attacks and through creating catastrophic living conditions that increase the massive death toll."

It also said that Israeli forces had inflicted "serious bodily or mental harm [on] the entire population of the Strip" and had engaged in "large-scale destruction of infrastructure" and "destruction of the social fabric, including Palestinian educational institutions and cultural sites."

The report also pointed to "mass arrests and abuse of detainees in Israeli prisons, which have effectively become torture camps for thousands of Palestinians held without trial" and "mass forced displacement, including attempts at ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and making the latter an official war goal."

It accused Israeli authorities of carrying out an "assault on Palestinian identity through the deliberate destruction of refugee camps and attempts to undermine the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for  Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)."

The report points to the 1948 UN definition of genocide as "the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group," and points to both evidence on the ground in Gaza as well as statements made by Israeli officials to back up its findings that a genocide is being carried out in Gaza.

The group added that "both morally and legally, genocide cannot be justified under any circumstance, including as an act of self-defense."

The report ends with a call to action from both Israeli civil society and the international community to "use...every means available under international law to stop Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people."

PHRI also released its report on Monday when it presented "this health-focused legal analysis of Israel's military campaign in Gaza since October 2023, concluding that it constitutes genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention."

"The evidence shows a deliberate and systematic dismantling of Gaza's health and life-sustaining systems — through targeted attacks on hospitals, obstruction of medical aid and evacuations, and the killing and detention of healthcare," the NGO said.

Israel has dismissed accusations that its forces are committing genocide and other rights abuses in the Gaza Strip, saying its primary war aim is to eliminate the Hamas militant group.

DW spoke to Jamil Sawalmeh, the country director for ActionAid Palestine, about Israel's announcement it would open some land routes to allow aid to enter Gaza.

The group is the Palestinian branch of the Johannesburg-based NGO ActionAid.

"Unfortunately this does not change the reality because it's very severe. The conditions are horrific," Sawalmeh said.

"This temporary and tactical pause is not what we need right now," he said.

"We are seeing that children particularly are actually most impacted by the engineered starvation in Gaza."

He said he believed the announcement was "only a way to mitigate international pressure and it's not going to be sufficient or adequate for any scale of needs in Gaza."

"However, we [also] consider this an opportunity and a call for the international community to continue increasing the pressure using all means to make Israel abide by its international obligations under international law and call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire," he stressed.

ActionAid Palestine criticizes aid deliveries through air drops

He also criticized Israel's plan to deliver aid through air drops, asking, "Why do we need these air drops when we have a land crossing [and] tonnes and tonnes of aid piled up by the crossing?"

"Previously when these air drops were conducted, some [civilians] were killed directly by the pallets falling from the skies on their head," he said.

"Some of these air drops have landed into dangerous combat zones, which means that civilian populations cannot access it. And if they try to access it, they will be subject to direct fire from the Israeli army."

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to meet with his Security Cabinet in Berlin a day after speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the phone.

Merz said he had urged Netanyahu to improve the humanitarian crises in Gaza, having previously called Israeli policy in the enclave "unacceptable."

The cabinet includes Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil of the Social Democrats (SPD), the center-left junior coalition partners of Merz's center-right block.

Last week, several prominent members of the SPD urged the government to take a stronger stance against Israel after 28 countries, including close allies France and the UK, issued a joint declaration condemning Israel's military actions in Gaza and calling for an end to the war.

Representatives of B'Tselem, also known as the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) are due to present their latest reports on the war in Gaza later on Monday.

B'Tselem is a Jerusalem-based organization that focuses on human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, and has expressed criticism of the Israeli government's policies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli government has said that 120 aid trucks having been allowed to enter Gaza, coinciding with a ten-hour pause in military operations in some areas, such as Al-Malawsi and Deir al-Balah.

Last week, international criticism of Israel's conduct in Gaza reached a fever pitch as news of mass starvation, particularly of children, continued to circulate. There was also hefty criticism of the US-run and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), one of the few aid organizations that was allowed to operate during Israel's months-long blockade, due to the reports of killings of hundreds of people waiting for aid at their distribution points.

The UN welcomed the news, a week after Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called what was happening in Gaza a "horror show...without parallel in recent times."

The body's Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, said: "We welcome Israel's decision to support a one-week scale-up of aid, including lifting customs barriers on food, medicine and fuel from Egypt and the reported designation of secure routes for UN humanitarian convoys."

Fletcher cautioned, however, that it still wouldn't be enough "to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis," before adding: "And no more attacks on people gathering for food."

Israel has announced a ten-hour pause in military action for Monday following an increasingly widespread global outcry over the mass starvation in the enclave, which has been under a months-long blockade of aid by the Israeli military.

The Security Cabinet of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to meet on Monday afternoon to discuss Berlin's position on Gaza and Israeli conduct there.

Also on Monday, two Israel-based NGOs are expected to present their findings after an independent investigation on rights abuses in Gaza.