The White House is exploring the possibility of airdropping aid from US military planes into Gaza as deliveries by land become increasingly difficult, four US officials told Axios on Wednesday. "The situation is really bad. We are unable to get enough aid [in] by truck so we need desperate measures like airdrops," one US official told the news website. According to the report, the amount of aid reaching Gaza fell by half this month, compared to January, after Hamas' civilian police who were escorting aid trucks walked off the job, opening the door for armed gangs and Palestinian Arabs desperate for supplies to attack and loot aid trucks. Officials also said that Israeli air strikes and the fighting in some areas have hit aid workers, making it increasingly difficult for humanitarian groups to continue their operations. Those realities have led to the bottlenecks of aid trucks at the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza and the crossing between Israel and the Strip. The concerns have become increasingly dire in northern Gaza where the World Food Program recently warned "famine is imminent" if nothing changes, according to Axios . The White House only recently started discussing the option of US airdrops, according to a US official. The administration was skeptical of such an idea early in the war, but support for it has been growing, the official added. The warming to the idea comes after Jordan conducted several rounds of aid airdrops in Gaza . Its most recent drops were done with the cooperation of Egypt and France. Jordan’s King Abdullah II himself participated in an airdrop of humanitarian aid to Gaza earlier this month. Related articles: Smotrich warns: Humanitarian aid to Gaza means end of government Cabinet members spar over humanitarian aid to Gaza Ambassador Huckabee's answer to WHO official's request Hamas suffering severe financial crisis US officials admit that aid airdrops will have a limited effect since a military plane can only drop the amount of supplies equivalent to that transported by one or two trucks. The officials said that airdrops can offer some help due to extreme need, but the only way to move aid into Gaza at the scale that is required is by land. The White House declined to comment.
