Canadian aid groups denounce airdrops as “costly, dangerous and ineffective”

Canadian aid groups are criticizing the federal government’s decision to airdrop food into Palestine’s occupied Gaza Strip. They say the move undermines years of work spent building a trustworthy, safe and reliable distribution system on the ground.

“Airdrops are expensive, dysfunctional and dangerous,” said Dalia Al-Awqati, deputy director of humanitarian work at Oxfam Canada. 

“We’ve had dozens of people that have been killed as a result of airdrops.” 

Future of Good spoke to multiple humanitarian organizations working in Gaza, and heard overwhelmingly that the Government of Canada should instead pressure Israeli authorities to open land borders and end restrictions on aid, including food, medical supplies, and water.

Israel began restricting the flow of goods and people into the walled enclave in the early 1990s. It intensified its blockade in 2007, a move long defined as illegal collective punishment by international humanitarian organizations.

In October 2023, Israel announced a “total blockade” on food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity. It later eased some restrictions, before re-intensifying its siege of the Gaza Strip in recent months.

The American-backed and Israeli-controlled Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) assumed control of aid operations three months ago, resulting in more than 1,000 violent deaths at the hands of Israeli forces and military contractors. 

Last week, famine was declared in Gaza, marked by widespread starvation, destitution and preventable deaths, according to a new Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis. Famine conditions are projected to spread from the Gaza Governorate to Deir Al Balah and Khan Younis Governorates in the coming weeks. 

Risk or respite?

Military and defence personnel from various countries, including Canada, have been involved in airdropping aid parcels into the Gaza Strip in recent months. Canada first dropped aid into the region at the end of July, supported by Jordanian authorities. 

The second drop, facilitated by the Canadian Armed Forces in support of Global Affairs Canada, saw 21,600 pounds of aid dropped on Gaza. 

In a joint statement released earlier this month, more than 100 organizations said the vast majority of humanitarian aid providers have been “unable to deliver a single truck of lifesaving supplies” since early March.

More recently, Israel announced new registration requirements for INGOs. Experts in the field say the move threatens their ability to operate in the occupied Palestinian territories. 

Organizations delivering aid and lifesaving services in Palestine are now required to submit information about their donors, employees, and activities in Palestine to the Israeli state for approval.

Organizations that don’t comply risk being barred from the Gaza Strip and the Occupied West Bank.

INGOs have called Israel’s registration criteria vague and politicized, adding it violates international and data protection laws.

“In the deadliest context for aid workers worldwide, where 98 per cent of those humanitarians killed were Palestinian, NGOs have no guarantees that handing over such information would not put staff at further risk, or be used to advance the government of Israel’s stated military and political aims,” INGOs wrote in a joint statement about the registration requirements. 

Aid staff at heightened risk in Gaza

Most of the organizations Future of Good spoke with employ Palestinian staff with local knowledge. 

This means aid workers themselves are struggling with food shortages and repeated displacements, all while losing family members to Israeli airstrikes, INGO representatives said. 

Humanity & Inclusion Canada and Médecins du Monde have seen their own staff and volunteers killed by Israeli forces.

Médecins du Monde’s offices have been targeted twice by Israeli forces, said Manon Hourdin, the organization’s director of international operations and strategic development. Local staff are currently preparing to relocate operations yet again. 

“Staff are physically and mentally exhausted,” Zaid Amali, Humanity & Inclusion Canada’s senior advocacy officer, said from the Occupied West Bank. “The situation is horrifying, and words cannot describe it.”

Islamic Relief Canada has been active in Palestine since 1997 and relies on Palestinian staff as well. 

“We treat our staff as rightsholders,” said international programs manager Kainat Qazi. “They receive the aid that they are distributing.”

Because of the inflationary prices of goods in the Gaza Strip, Islamic Relief Canada is also considering raising the salaries of its remaining staff. 

Despite the total blockade, aid workers are still able to deliver some goods by procuring them through local markets. Oxfam, for example, continues to offer cash assistance, sexual health programming, gender-based violence interventions, and sanitation and hygiene work. 

Islamic Relief Canada continues to run its orphan sponsorship program in Gaza, while Médecins du Monde runs six primary healthcare clinics – three of which are currently in restricted areas of Gaza declared off-limits by Israel. 

Lea Pelletier-Marcotte, policy analyst at Oxfam Quebec, said the organization had been trucking potable water to those most in need but stopped mid-July due to fuel shortages and concern that continuing deliveries would further strain a limited supply.

“We don’t want to do more harm by doing these interventions,” she said.

Amali said that Humanity & Inclusion Canada, which has operated in Palestine for decades, supporting those with disabilities through shelter, education and health interventions, is being prevented from fulfilling its mandate.

While its Prosthetics and Orthotics Centre is still operating five days a week, Israel is blocking sophisticated medical and prosthetic equipment from entering Gaza, making it difficult to treat the new cases they receive every day.

Repeatedly denied entry by Israeli authorities, the organization’s trucks now sit at Gaza’s land borders. 

“One of the reasons cited was that we were not registered yet,” Amali said. “That is technically incorrect because we are already registered and are going through a re-registration process that hasn’t concluded yet.”

“These are arbitrary and bureaucratic measures that further prevent us from doing our work and threaten our existence here,” he said.

As part of the new INGO registration process, aid organizations are required to provide extensive details about on-the-ground staff and donors. Both Médecins du Monde and  HI Canada have identified this requirement as a “red line.” Not only does it violate privacy laws, but donors have asked the organization not to engage. 

Israel maintains that organizations operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are required to adhere to Israeli law. However, Pelletier-Marcotte said there’s a growing consensus that the requirements are illegal under European legislation.

Emergency partnerships 

“We have been telling the Government of Canada that security and protection of humanitarian workers is a shared responsibility,” Hourdin said. “It is not something that lies only with the NGO. So far, we don’t see that being comprehended, and we don’t see (Global Affairs Canada) taking action for that.”

On one occasion, the federal agency asked Hourdin to provide sensitive information about on-the-ground staff and partners in the Gaza Strip as part of a funding agreement. Médecins du Monde decided to refuse the funding as a result. 

Hourdin said requesting sensitive information about humanitarian staff, as well as dismantling established, independent aid delivery systems, are violations of international and humanitarian law. 

The ongoing militarization of aid in Gaza could set a dangerous precedent, she said, one signalling the demise of independent humanitarian aid systems.

According to Global Affairs’ website, the federal government has given more than $335 million to organizations working with Palestinians in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank since October 2023. 

The majority of that funding, $270 million, has gone to humanitarian assistance. Just under $25 million has gone to peace and security programming in the region, and $20 million was directed to essential health services. 

The Government of Canada has also provided $40 million in development assistance to the Palestinian Authority through the World Bank. 

Humanitarian organizations, including CARE Canada, the Canadian Red Cross, HI Canada, and various UN agencies, have also received Canadian funding.

All of the organizations that Future of Good spoke with condemned the decision to drop aid pallets into the Gaza Strip. Qazi called it demeaning, while Amali pointed out that people with disabilities, the elderly, women and children will not be able to get to the aid packages quickly enough. 

After Canada’s first airdrop in late July, Médecins du Monde wrote to the federal government to express concerns about this delivery method. However, a second air drop occurred after the letter was received.

Future of Good contacted Global Affairs Canada for more information about the airdrops, including whether any aid organizations participated and whether additional airdrops are planned. However, we were directed to a website that did not directly address our questions. 

Aid organizations said they will continue to urge Ottawa to pressure Israel to open Gaza’s land borders and allow the many trucks currently sitting idle to enter the occupied territory.

“What Canada should do instead (of airdrops) is end arms transfers to Israel, call for a ceasefire, and demand that land routes be opened,” Pelletier-Marcotte said. 

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