Germany delivered its first aid supplies for Gaza by parachute on Saturday after joining other countries in a humanitarian mission to the embattled Palestinian territory.
Four tons of rice, flour and other food were dropped from a military C-130 Hercules transport aircraft over the north of the Gaza Strip. The next delivery is scheduled for Sunday.
"We delivered the four pallets with pinpoint accuracy from an altitude of around 1,000 metres," the German Air Force wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
On Wednesday, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius gave the go-ahead for the mission to the Gaza Strip.
Germany deployed two C-130 aircraft stationed in France to the region. Each can transport up to 18 tons of cargo and will operate out of Jordan, which initiated the airdrops. The United States and France are also taking part in the initiative.
However, opinions are divided in Gaza about the usefulness of the airdrops, which can be hazardous for the population.
A week ago, a pallet whose parachute failed to open killed five people. In another instance, dropped goods reportedly fell in an active combat zone with Israeli soldiers in the immediate vicinity.
Authorities in Gaza have called the airdrops "futile" due to the relatively small volumes of food delivered. Many residents are also simply unable to access the areas where the supplies land.
One aircraft load, which is brought to its destination at great expense, is roughly equivalent to the amount that a truck can transport.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday called for a swift ceasefire in the Gaza war as he prepared to visit the crisis-ridden region.
"It would be important for an agreement to be reached very quickly now on a ceasefire that would enable the hostages to be released and at the same time allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza," Scholz said ahead of a two-day trip to Jordan and Israel.
"We have a difficult situation. It is necessary for aid to reach Gaza on a larger scale now."
A ceasefire was needed that would last "for the foreseeable future," said Scholz.
At the same time, the chancellor again warned Israel against conducting a military operation in Rafah in the south of the coastal strip.
"We are concerned about the further progress of military developments. In particular, there is a danger that a comprehensive offensive in Rafah could result in many terrible civilian casualties, which must be avoided at all costs."
It is important that "a major human disaster does not occur," Scholz said. Many people had fled to Rafah who would otherwise no longer have a safe place in the Gaza Strip, he stressed.
Scholz is due on Sunday to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and hostage relatives.
On Thursday, Israel said it had sent 244 trucks of aid to the Gaza Strip, but only 33 of these reached the northern part of the coastal region, where the need is particularly great. Before the war, around 500 trucks of aid had been arriving in Gaza every day.
About 2.2 million people live in Gaza, with more than 1 million now in the south in and around the city of Rafah after fleeing the war in the northern part of the strip.
The United Nations has warned of a major hunger crisis looming if aid deliveries by truck are not expanded.
The Gaza war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel's history, carried out by the Islamist Hamas movement and other extremist Palestinian organizations in Israel on October 7.
More than 1,200 people were killed on the Israeli side and some 240 taken hostage. Israel responded with massive airstrikes and a ground offensive in Gaza.
According to the Hamas-controlled health authority there, more than 31,100 people have been killed on the Palestinian side since the start of the war.
The German airdrops on Saturday coincided with the completion of the unloading of a first seaborne consignment of almost 200 tons of food for Gaza.
The Open Arms ship operated by the Spanish organization World Central Kitchen (WCK) set sail from the Cypriot port of Larnaca on Tuesday and reached the waters off Gaza on Friday.
The organization, which was founded by José Andrés, a Spanish celebrity chef living in the United States, is currently preparing another ship with 240 tons of food for Gaza.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war in October, the WSK says it has brought 1,500 truck loads of food to Gaza and provided 37 million meals.
The European Union is also planning a sea corridor to improve supplies to Gaza, as is the United States, which will build a floating dock off the coast.
