Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on August 1, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleFrance has begun air-dropping humanitarian aid to Gaza, urging Israel to allow full access as famine risks grow. International partners support the effort.
PARIS (Reuters) -France on Friday started to air-drop 40 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza as it urged Israel to allow full access to the area which it said was slipping into famine.
"Faced with the absolute urgency, we have just conducted a food airdrop operation in Gaza. Thank you to our Jordanian, Emirati, and German partners for their support, and to our military personnel for their commitment," President Emmanuel Macron wrote on social media platform X.
"Airdrops are not enough. Israel must open full humanitarian access to address the risk of famine," he added.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot earlier in the day had told broadcaster franceinfo that France was sending four flights carrying 10 tonnes of humanitarian aid each to Gaza from Jordan.
A global hunger monitor said on Tuesday that a famine scenario was unfolding in the Gaza Strip, with malnutrition soaring, children under five dying of hunger-related causes and humanitarian access severely restricted.
France participated six times in the European humanitarian airlift set up in mid-October 2023 by the European Union to Jordan and Egypt to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, Macron's office said.
The European airlift enabled the organisation of more than 60 flights carrying over 3,350 tons of humanitarian cargo, with most of the donations in-kind transiting through Egypt and Jordan, according to Macron's office.
Part of this aid has still not entered Gaza due to a lack of agreement from the Israeli authorities, the president's office said.
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; additional reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Makini Brice)
France started to air-drop 40 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza as it urged Israel to allow full access to the area.
France sent four flights carrying 10 tonnes of humanitarian aid each to Gaza from Jordan.
A global hunger monitor reported that a famine scenario is unfolding in Gaza, with malnutrition soaring and children under five dying of hunger-related causes.
Part of the aid has not entered Gaza due to a lack of agreement from the Israeli authorities.
France participated six times in the European humanitarian airlift set up by the EU to deliver aid to Gaza, enabling over 60 flights carrying more than 3,350 tons of humanitarian cargo.
Explore more articles in the Headlines category
