Launching sky help to Gaza is 100 times more expensive than delivering it by trucks via land routes, Unrwa chief, the UN’s main agency for Palestinian refugees, said on Friday.
“Aerial launches are at least 100 times more expensive than trucks. Trucks carry twice as long as airplanes,” wrote Philippe Lazzarini on X (former Twitter).
The releases have been made by the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt and other countries since. The UN had warned that air releases are dangerous besides being expensive, while Palestinians in Gaza told CNN that they resent themselves to running after the help launched “like dogs.”
“If there is political will to allow air throws-which are extremely expensive, insufficient and ineffective-there should be the same political will to open the land passages,” said Unrwa’s commissioner-general.
Lazzarini said the agency has 6,000 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid waiting for the release to enter Gaza. Israel insists on inspecting all trucks before they cross to the territory.
He added that during the Unrwa managed to take between 500 and 600 trucks a day.
“No alternative to the UN -coordinated response with Unrwa as a central axis has achieved similar results,” he said in an apparent criticism of the US Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which excluded the UN from its role in help distribution.
