Netherlands deploys military transport plane to help drop aid over Gaza

The Netherlands has deployed a military transport plane to Jordan to help with air drops of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, the Dutch government said on Wednesday.

The Dutch will carry out the air drops with the help of Jordan, the government said, following similar actions by the United States, France and Egypt earlier this week.

American cargo planes airdropped more than 36,000 meals to Gaza Tuesday in a joint operation with Jordan, the US military said, as the international community scrambles to curb a growing humanitarian crisis there.

The United Nations has warned of famine in Gaza, while the World Health Organization said a recent aid mission to two hospitals found horrifying scenes of children dying of starvation in the territory’s north.

The United States — Israel’s staunchest ally — began airdropping aid on Saturday into Gaza, which has faced relentless bombardment by Israel since Hamas launched its cross-border attack on October 7.

The Hamas attack resulted in about 1,160 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza, now in its fifth month, has killed more than 30,600 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest toll from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.

The amount of aid brought into Gaza by truck has plummeted during nearly five months of war, and Gazans are facing dire shortages of food, water and medicines.