Northern Gaza right now is the scene of a true hunger/starvation crisis that is absolutely about to spiral out of control. Israel’s refusal to allow desperately needed food aid into the north is worsening this crisis. However, Hamas’s actions are giving Israeli decision-makers and war planners excuses and pretexts not to take rapid action and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions from worsening. Hamas’s irresponsible and damaging actions include continuing to launch rockets from areas where IDF troops withdrew, causing the Israeli military to re-enter those zones and prevent the return of civilians to their neighborhoods.
But here is a particularly egregious example: I and several others behind the scenes are pushing for food airdrops especially in northern Gaza which is unreachable, isolated and receiving virtually no aid from the south. Yesterday, Jordan announced its intention to carry out more airdrops in the north since that is seemingly the only way, for now, to deliver substantial food and humanitarian supplies to the hundreds of thousands of besieged civilians in the north. So, what do the Hamas dark lords in Gaza City do today? They publish videos of a few fighters using shoulder-launched surface to air missiles (SAM-7, Soviet-era Strela-2 IR launchers) to target Israeli helicopters and fixed-wing drones. There is no evidence that these launches successfully downed any aircraft, particularly because the system is ancient and most modern military aircraft are equipped with defensive countermeasures. However, what this does is complicate efforts to conduct food airdrops over northern Gaza either because civilian cargo aircraft lack countermeasures or, more importantly, food airdrops would need to be carried out at a lower altitude, elevating the risk of them being hit by shoulder-launched SAMs. Nevertheless, I maintain that food airdrops can be safely conducted while accounting for the operational risks which can be mitigated
King Abdullah and World Kitchen have both had successful food drops into North Gaza since this was written.