German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has given the go-ahead for the country's air force to drop urgently needed supplies over the Gaza Strip, joining several other countries that have airdropped aid on the besieged Palestinian territory.
Pistorius signed a corresponding order on Wednesday to Germany's armed forces, the Bundeswehr, dpa has learned.
"The people in Gaza lack the most basic necessities. We want to do our part to ensure that they have access to food and medicine," said Pistorius.
The Bundeswehr will provide two C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, each of which can transport up to 18 tons of cargo, the minister said. According to the Bundeswehr, the mission will be carried out by German aircraft from a joint Franco-German air transport squadrom based in Evreux, France.
"The truth is that the drop is not without danger. The crews assigned to this task are trained and highly experienced for the operation involved."
Germany's air force chief, Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz, has meanwhile issued a special permit authorizing the airdrop.
Wednesday's order sees Germany joining an initiative launched by Jordan to supply Gazans with aid from the air. Other countries, including the United States and France, have joined the operation.
The first of the German aircraft took off from Evreux on Wednesday for the Gaza aid mission. After a stopover in Toulouse, it was initially destined for Jordan, where the aid supplies were to be loaded.
According to aid organizations, the situation of the people in Gaza, a narrow and densely populated coastal strip, is becoming increasingly desperate. The United Nations has warned that a hunger crisis and starvation loom if aid deliveries by lorry are not expanded.
Israel has strictly limited land deliveries of aid to the Gaza Strip, home to around 2.2 million people, during a months-long Israeli military campaign of airstrikes and ground attacks.
Israel launched its war and largely blockaded access to Gaza after the Palestinian militant group Hamas led unprecedented attacks on Israel on October 7 that included brutal massacres of civilians.
According to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza, more than 31,100 people have been killed on the Palestinian side since the start of the war.
Efforts are also under way to deliver aid supplies to Gaza by sea.
On Tuesday, the aid group Open Arms set sail from the Cypriot port of Larnaca towards the Gaza Strip with a converted tugboat pulling a platform loaded with around 200 tons of drinking water, medicine and food.
The ship's journey could take up to 60 hours as the ship is moving slowly.
However, according to a UN spokesman, sea transportation of relief supplies to the Gaza Strip does not make up for the lack of urgently needed lorry deliveries, especially at border crossings into northern Gaza from Israel.
On Tuesday evening, it was announced that an aid convoy carrying food had reached the north of the Gaza Strip via a new Israeli military road.
According to the Israeli military, the convoy was a pilot project aimed at preventing aid from falling into the hands of Hamas.
