The U.S. began airdropping food aid into Gaza City on Saturday. Video of the food deliveries, which have been dispersed through the region via parachutes from planes, have prompted some to compare the visuals to scenes from the “Hunger Games” film franchise. As one person put it on social media, the drops are “very Hunger Games vibes.”
Another tweeted a video from the drop and captioned it, “Hunger Games Humanitarianism.”
The deliveries have been acknowledged as an imperfect solution to a war that has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and many more on the brink of starvation. The current war between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 253 hostage. Israel has responded by pursuing Hamas leaders who Israeli officials have said are hiding in Gaza.
Footage from the time of the drops has rattled people on social media. Many expressed their dismay at the situation and likened it to moments in “Hunger Games” when participants in the Games were delivered life-saving medication and resources to continue their fight.
One person tweeted, “The aid airdrops are very hunger games vibes.”
Another wrote, “Air drops are expensive, delivery is often inaccurate and it creates an unfair struggle for the supplies leaving the vulnerable, elderly and the sick excluded. It’s 21st century Hunger Games.”
And a third said more could be done. He tweeted at Biden, “Did your administration ever stop to think about what it sounds like when you send/ airdrop aid while at the same time NOT stopping the flow of bombs and shells that are killing them? You’re doing the Hunger Games in real life, with 1M+ children stuck inside!”
U.S. Central Command said they delivered “over 38,000 meals along the coastline of Gaza allowing for civilian access to the critical aid” on Saturday. On Friday, President Biden said the U.S. will carry out more airdrops this week.
He tweeted, “In the coming days, the United States will carry out airdrops of aid to Gaza, redouble our efforts to open a maritime corridor, and expand deliveries by land. The aid flowing into Gaza is nowhere near enough. We all need to do more. And the United States will do more.”
The U.S. began exploring the idea of airdropping food and aid into Gaza in late February. As reported by Axios, the conversation taking place at all is an indication of just how serious the situation in Gaza has become for the city’s citizens. An unnamed government official explained to the outlet, “the situation is really bad. We are unable to get enough aid [in] by truck so we need desperate measures like airdrops.”
Aid delivered to Gaza by truck fell by half in February when compared to January, and delivery has been complicated by multiple factors. Hamas’ civilian police walked off their jobs after they were targeted by the Israel Defense Forces. On Thursday, more than 100 Gazans were killed when thousands attempted to receive aid delivered via truck.
The IDF had denied that its tanks were responsible for the deaths. IDF chief spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari insisted, “No IDF strike was conducted towards the aid convoy.” This claim was disputed by Palestinians who were wounded in the event. One man who said he’d taken the body of his friend to the hospital said the IDF began shooting and many people were run over by the delivery trucks as they attempted to escape.
The BBC reported that many of the dead and wounded were treated at Kamal Adwan and al-Awda Hospital. Doctors there reported they had wounds from bullets and shrapnel.
Aid workers who have worked for months to bring relief to Gazans have told CNN they are often thwarted by Israel. The country currently prohibits the delivery of “anesthetics and anesthesia machines, oxygen cylinders, ventilators and water filtration systems, dates, sleeping bags, medicines to treat cancer, water purification tablets and maternity kits.”
On Tuesday, the United Nations warned that 576,000 people in Gaza are on the brink of famine. Ramesh Rajasingham, coordination director of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, explained, “Very little will be possible while hostilities continue and while there is a risk that they will spread into the overcrowded areas in the south of Gaza. We therefore reiterate our call for a ceasefire.”
The U.N. also stated that 1 in 6 children under the age of 2 in Gaza suffer from acute malnutrition. Aid groups currently face “overwhelming obstacles just to get a bare minimum of supplies into Gaza.”
In an opinion piece published by the New York Times on Thursday, writer Megan K. Stark wrote, “These children are not suffering from drought or crop failure or some other natural disaster. Their hunger is a man-made catastrophe. The Israeli government has slowed and even prevented food aid from entering the besieged Gaza Strip.”
“To a lesser but important extent, people in Gaza are hungry because the U.S. government — Israel’s pre-eminent military aid provider and political defender — has failed to use its considerable leverage to force Israel to let Gaza eat.”
