So? You don’t think they’re knee deep in what’s going on?
Egypt and Jordan are going to have a better understanding of the situation in Gaza than David Hardin.
…they are certainly “knee deep” in something.
But the humanitarian agencies on the ground already have the infrastructure, systems and experience to better manage distribution. Because randomly dropping food on peoples heads is not the most effective way of distributing food at scale.
You don’t have to trust David Hardin (who is an expert on things like this.)
You just have to watch the video.
And what the video shows is distribution via “lord of the flies.” The fittest and strongest who could get to the food drops first and fight everyone else off got the food.
I watched the video. And he’s NOT an expert on things like this. What I didn’t see in the video were trucks.
…then you saw that everything Hardin, the expert, said was correct.
Which is what the United States should be putting all of their efforts into facilitating. Which means pressuring Israel to allow more food in via truck and to help figure out the security situation.
That was from the 9th of January. Things have deteriorated substantially since then. But even using these old numbers, 500,000 people are at high risk of mass starvation and death. And we are now at the point where people are dying daily from malnutrition.
The situation is urgent. Gaza needs at least 500,000 meals per day just in order that those in the greatest need get only one meal.
The US airdrops are certainly better than nothing. And if they can scale it up and add more aid coming in from the ocean thats great.
But 33,000 meals randomly dropped every other day is, as I said from the start, relatively inconsequential. And it doesn’t look like, even with aid coming in from the ocean, it won’t scale up significantly from this.
What would be better would be hospital ships. Because the Gazan healthcare system has been destroyed. Bring the food in by trucks, set up safe humanitarian corridors, get on top of the food distribution, airdrops coordinated with humanitarian agencies on the ground, bring in hospital ships and mobile hospitals.
I saw a couple of sound bites that weren’t backed by the video.
Again, 20 flights in the last 2 weeks with the US now joining the effort. They’re designed to augment trucks, not replace them.
They’re not inconsequential to the people receiving them. And again, no trucks in the video delivering food. Doesn’t seem to be in conflict with ground deliveries.
I’m having trouble following the thread. @Magiver, are you saying the food distribution as it stands is good? Sufficient? Is the US doing a good job distributing food? Is Israel? I’m not really sure what point you’re trying to make with the last dozen posts.
All I did was post the beginning of US airdrops and upcoming sea based drops. These are in addition to other countries doing the same thing. They’re intended to augment ground based aid and deliver it to more distressed areas.
If you’re not interested in updated news that’s fine but BB just crapped all over the idea of air drops saying they’re worthless.
…they weren’t sound bytes. It was a tweet. He wrote words. I quoted those words.
He said “Watch this video. These airdrops of food are inconsequential, will not blunt famine risk, are not coordinated with relief agencies on the ground, and are captured by the strongest, fastest, most networked rather than those most in need.”
And yeah. These airdrops won’t blunt the looming famine. They are inconsequential. And in the video, they were captured by the strongest and the fastest and not by the people in the most need.
20 truckloads. In two weeks.
I mean, yeah. It welcome.
But honestly? In the grand scheme of things? It’s hardly a big deal. Not compared to the sheer scale of the humanitarian disaster Palestinians are living in Gaza.
Because watch the video from the New York Times again.
And look at the landscape.
The city is destroyed.
Gaza is being flattened. Houses, schools, hospitals, Mosques, Universities, apartment complexes…destroyed.
Food. Housing. Healthcare. Water. Fuel. Hygiene. Waste disposal. Infection. Disease. Orphans. Amputees.
There is so many things that are going to kill thousands of Gazans over the next few months. And I haven’t even mentioned the snipers or the bombing. Yes: everyone, lets give the United States of America a great big clap because occasionally they will be dropping a few boxes of food onto peoples heads. Now that’s all over and done with: lets focus on everything else that needs to be done.
I keep saying that any food aid is welcome.
An irrelevant standard when evaluating the utility of this strategy.
…inconsequential, not worthless.
That’s mighty nice of you to say while at the same time saying they’re inconsequential.
So you think feeding people who are having a hard time getting food from trucks is irrelevant?
…is America actually serious about getting aid through to Palestinians that need it?
Then it needs to get off its ass, tell Netanyahu to let the fucking trucks through, then it needs to work with humanitarian agencies on the ground to get the food to the people that need it. Gaza needs at least 500 trucks per day of not just food but water, fuel, medical supplies, shelter. The equivalent of 1 truckload of food every so often is indeed welcome. But in the grand scheme of things, inconsequential. It’s a literal drop in the bucket.
Nope.
I said the standard was irrelevant in terms of how we assess the strategy, not that the food was irrelevant.
…from the latest Flash Update:
Fucking hell. My tracking had put it at 26 hospitals non-functional. But the disruption to aid to the north last month as well as the inability for WHO to get almost anywhere meant that the number hadn’t been able to be updated.
But thats 32 out of 36 hospitals now non-functional. Jesus.
A reminder that Israel still hasn’t provided any evidence at all to support their allegations against those UNRWA staff.
More here.
Disturbingly: the West Bank update keeps getting bigger, and updates from Gaza keep getting lighter.
As a baker (an amateur one) I disagree.
Flatbread is simple, some types requires no rising and can be baked on a fire.
We have a thing in South Africa called braaibroodjies which do require rising, but I have succesfully made them on long distance unsupported hiking trips, using just a plastic bag for kneading and rising, then cooking on a fire.
Bread is also a traditional food for Palestine, so pretty much anyone knows how to make it. Taboon, for example. Cooked on hot rocks next to a fire.
And bread is filling. It has a decent amount of nutrional values. When people are literally starving to death, I think allowing them to make bread is a fairly kind thing to do.
In order to make bread from flour you also need water, which is in very short supply, and fuel to burn for an oven, which I suspect is also in very short supply.
At this point everything has a use and Gazans probably welcome both flour and MRE’s. Both have their good points and bad points, but having something you can just open up and eat without further fuss has a lot of utility.
I suspect getting the time isn’t as much of an issue as you might suppose. Bread backing is 15 minutes of mixing, an hour or two of rising time, 10-15 minutes of forming, more rising, then 30 minutes or less of baking. It’s not like being compelled to stir a pot continuously without interruption for 4 hours. The big problem will likely be water and fuel for the oven.
Also:
And, if you’re starving to death, which is the case for too many in Gaza, “empty calories” are still useful and potentially life-saving, they can sustain you until you can get good nutrition.
Sure. But until that can be done air drops might help keep people alive.
Only if you have water and fuel for an oven. Absent those, an MRE is more useful.
The truth is both are useful and there’s no reason to NOT send both.
Aside from the fact that the point is NOT to drop anything anyone’s actual head, no, it’s not efficient but right now, since we can’t do this efficiently (with trucks) it might be the ONLY way to get food to people in need. And that’s why we should do it.
Will the strong/coordinated disproportionately get such food? Yes. That’s is also true of food trucked in. In this sort of situation the strong have the best chances of survival. Sorry if it’s not civilized but war, much less the systematic starvation of civilians, is not civilized.
Meanwhile, until trucks can get in there, dropping food is better than not dropping food because it will help keep at least some people alive.
Yes, that would all be better. But until that happens dropping shit out of the sky is better than doing nothing.
For the people who do get that aid it’s not “inconsequential” and I very much doubt they care about how inefficient it might be.
It’s not like the “strongest and fastest” are healthy, buff, well-fed individuals. They, too, are in danger of starving to death. If they don’t get food then very soon they, too, will fall into “most in need” then shortly after “deceased”.
I’ll also point out that in that part of the world for aid distribution, or just in harsh conditions in general, it’s quite common that the men of the family go get the food and bring it back to the women and children. There’s no reason to believe that is not happening, that some of those “most fit” are family men coordinating to keep their families fed. You just don’t know, it’s not something you can tell by just looking.
If they don’t get food and water none of those other things will be done.
The air drops were a positive act that answered Bidens’ critics. It was a propaganda victory. Airplanes are better optics than trucks.
I agree. And (off topic, the C-130 has been my favorite aeroplane since I was young)
But these plasters applied to giant wounds just do not work.
As I said, upthread, a supply aircraft was entering West Berlin airspace during the seige every 30 seconds, laden with food and necessities. There are US friendly countries nearby to stage relief, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar.
Hell, Israel itself is a US ally. Is it that hard for Israel to to allow people literally starving to death, just die - including absolutely innocent men, women and children?
They don’t give a shit. And, neither does the USA.
The trucks can’t get there because Israel is blocking them. They could get there today (well, yesterday) if the IDF let them.
I’m not an expert on food aid, food in gaza or anything else but I did just hear about a massacre that occurred when hundreds of starving gazans were swarming a truck with flour so it seems like flour is useful to them.
I don’t get the point of questioning the orgs trying to get trucks of food into the area. There’s no particular reason to think they haven’t done more homework than we have and are bringing in food that is actually useful to people.