"We need urgent action now," said Ross Smith, director of emergency preparedness and response at the UN World Food Program (WFP) this week, as he told the press in Rome that the hunger and starvation currently underway in Gaza were "unlike anything we have seen in this century. It reminds us of previous disasters in Ethiopia or Biafra in the past century."

"Worst-case scenario of famine unfolding in the Gaza Strip," read an alert issued by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The UN's hunger monitoring initiative has concluded that mounting evidence shows that "widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths."

It added: "Latest data indicates that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City."

Most of the more than 2 million inhabitants of the already densely populated Gaza Strip, which has a total area of 365 square kilometers (141 square miles), are currently living in extremely overcrowded refugee camps in an even more limited space because the Israeli army has declared large parts of the enclave as militarized zones.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently declared there was "no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza."

Israel has barred international journalists from entering Gaza, and dozens of Palestinian journalists have been killed, making it extremely difficult to independently verify the situation on the ground.

Airdrops 'notoriously ineffective and dangerous'

Since the weekend, members of the international community have been trying to find ways of alleviating the acute misery in Gaza. On Sunday, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates parachuted 25 tons of aid into Gaza. Germany and France also announced airdrop missions.

"This work may only make a small contribution to humanitarian aid, but it sends an important signal: We are here, we are in the region," said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Aid organizations, however, have expressed dismay.

"Using airdrops for the delivery of humanitarian aid is a futile initiative that smacks of cynicism," said Jean Guy Vataux, the emergency coordinator in Gaza for Doctors Without Borders (MSF). He said airdrops were "notoriously ineffective and dangerous."

The Berlin-based Center for Humanitarian Action (CHA) called it "the most senseless airlift ever" as well as "symbolic politics and a waste of money." Its director Ralf Südhoff said airlifts were up to 35 times more expensive than land convoys.

Airdrops do not reach those who need aid most

Marvin Fürderer, an emergency relief expert at the German charity Welthungerhilfe, also described the airdrops as "symbolic" and "ineffective." He told DW that one fundamental problem of the approach was that aid would be "dropped into a high-risk environment, without coordination, without a designated drop zone and without safety structures."

He added that the aid would likely not reach those who needed it most but those who were "still mobile enough to fight their way through the rubble and crowded streets to get to a place where aid had been dropped and then to wrangle for it."

Almost every day, Palestinians are killed trying to access food at the few hubs run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The US nonprofit is backed by President Donald Trump's administration and the Israeli government, and was set up to distribute humanitarian aid after Israel banned the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from operating in Gaza and the other occupied Palestinian territories earlier this year. However, it has failed to provide security, with the UN accusing the Israeli military of firing on people standing in line.

Earlier this week, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said "more than 1,000 people have been killed since the end of May as they tried to get food."

At least 600 trucks of aid needed per day

International NGOs have called on Israel to allow the unhindered entry of aid into Gaza and for those organizations that used to provide supplies at around 600 distribution hubs to be permitted to resume their activities.

At a press conference in Berlin, Riad Othman, a Middle East expert at the German-based human rights organization Medico International, explained that before October 7, 2023, the population of Gaza and its economy were being supplied by 500 to 600 trucks per day.

"Today, even 600 trucks a day would not be enough to meet demand because not only has the essential infrastructure and health care system been systematically destroyed in Gaza, but so too has agriculture," he added.

A truck can typically hold about 20 tons of aid, which includes medical supplies and drinking water, as well as food.

Israel has been letting some aid trucks into Gaza since Sunday, likely owing to international pressure. The Israeli military body that facilitates the entry of aid to Gaza, COGAT, said 220 aid trucks crossed into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

On October 7, 2023 the militant Palestinian organization Hamas and other groups killed more than 1,200 people in Israel in a coordinated attack. They also took 250 hostages back to Gaza. Israel launched a counterattack and declared that it would destroy Hamas. The Gaza Health Ministry has said at least 60,000 people have died in the resulting offensive, at least 147 from starvation.

After violating a ceasefire agreement in March, Israel blocked all aid supplies to Gaza for more than 80 days. Now, Israel said it is observing daily pauses in fighting in parts of Gaza and once again allowing aid to be delivered via land. Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has criticized this decision, saying it is akin to providing life support for the enemy.

Julia Duchrow, the secretary general of Amnesty International's German section, said there was "ample evidence that Israel is using hunger as a weapon of war." She called on the German government to stop supplying arms to Israel and to increase diplomatic pressure on the Israeli government.

'Convoys could start within hours' after ceasefire

The Israeli government has denied many international NGOs access to Gaza. Welthungerhilfe can only provide aid via local partners, Fürderer told DW, saying that a permanent ceasefire was crucial and that the border crossings had to be opened to allow humanitarian aid in. He said that if this were to happen, Welthungerhilfe could immediately bring in aid from Jordan.

"The convoys could start within hours, as soon as the political conditions on the ground allowed," he said.

By contrast, he said, the airdrops would call for logistical reorganization that would be costly.

"It is very interesting that this is now being considered, at a time when the government wants to cut humanitarian aid by 53%," Fürderer said. "In a situation like this, it is difficult to spend millions on symbolic, ineffective airdrops."

The German air force already has some experience dropping aid into Gaza. In spring 2024, A400M military transport aircraft flew airdrop missions for 10 weeks, dropping 315 tons of aid supplies in total.

Jens Thurau contributed to this article, which was originally written in German.