Children watch as food parcels are airdropped in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP
The criticism came after Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul visited the region Thursday and Friday, and as the German military carried out its first food airdrops into Gaza.
Aid groups warn that Israel’s blockade has driven more than two million Palestinians into a manmade famine.
Germany “notes limited initial progress in the delivery of humanitarian aid to the population of the Gaza Strip, which, however, remains very insufficient to alleviate the emergency situation,” government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said in a statement.
“Israel remains obligated to ensure the full delivery of aid,” Kornelius added.
Concerns over famine in Gaza have escalated sharply in recent days as Israel’s over 21-month war and five-month blockade continue to choke off access to food, clean water, and medical supplies.
While Israel and its allies claim progress, international aid agencies say conditions remain catastrophic. They warn that aid deliveries are still dangerously low and have called on Israel to grant immediate, unrestricted humanitarian access to the besieged territory.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has said it has 300 aid trucks ready for distribution inside Gaza. UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, said it has approximately 6,000 trucks waiting in Jordan and Egypt for approval to enter.
“Allow the U.N., including UNRWA & our partners to operate at scale & without bureaucratic or political hurdles,” Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, wrote on X.
Lazzarini criticized Israel for allowing foreign countries to airdrop aid, calling it a “distraction & screensmoke.” A similar effort in March 2024 was widely criticized by humanitarian groups as insufficient to meet basic needs.
While Germany has long been a staunch ally of Israel, its government has expressed serious concern over reports that large quantities of humanitarian aid have been looted.
Israel has also admitted to empowering Palestinian criminal groups in Gaza to weaken Hamas’s control; these groups have been primarily responsible for looting aid supplies.
“The real theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces,” Jonathan Whittall of OCHA, the U.N. agency coordinating humanitarian affairs, told reporters in May. His comments came in response to Israeli allegations that Hamas was stealing aid.
A German government source told AFP that Israel had “considerably” increased the number of trucks allowed into Gaza, now estimated at about 220 per day. However, this does not match the reality on the ground, where malnutrition is soaring, particularly among children, pregnant women, and the elderly.
According to health authorities in Gaza, the death toll from Israel's mass starvation policy has reached 160, including 90 children.
A new alert from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system released this week warned: “Famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City.”
It added, “The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.”
A German government source confirmed to AFP that the country’s security cabinet met Saturday to discuss “the different options” for increasing pressure on Israel. However, no decision was made.
One option under consideration is a partial suspension of arms deliveries to Israel. So far, only Slovenia has taken that step, announcing Thursday a ban on all weapons trade with Tel Aviv.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, the death toll from Israel’s war since October 7, 2023, has risen to 60,332, with 147,643 injured. The majority of the dead are women and children.
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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