Olga Cherevko from the UN humanitarian agency OCHA also called any aid effort positive and said there was "no alternative to land going through. It was more cost-effective to move large quantities in trucks, she said.

Jordan, at whose request the operation was approved by the Dutch government last week.

Caretaker Ministers Veldkamp (Foreign Affairs) and Brekelmans (Defence) described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as "catastrophic". It is scheduled to make daily flights over the next two weeks carrying shipments of bottled drinking water, medicine and non-perishable food.

Concerns Over Effectiveness and Safety
As the Israeli security cabinet approved expanding the war, including Prime Minister Netanyahu's plans for a Gaza City occupation, the first Dutch airdrop took place.

Mirthe Bosch, a humanitarian expert at Oxfam Novib, said that with thousands of trucks ready to deliver aid across border crossings, "airdrops should only be conducted as a last resort if no other option is possible". There, people are spared, and this is called a "gestural alleviation of the political conscience, as she called it.

Much of the population is on the brink of starvation as little international aid is allowed into the enclave.

Israel shut down its borders completely in March, and even though some food has been allowed in after international pressure, the flow is slow. Aid organisations em.