In Gaza, hunger and airstrikes are not the only killers. Thirteen-year-old Muhannad Zakaria Eid died in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp when an aid box, dropped from the sky, struck him on the head. He became the fourth of his siblings to be buried, and the fourth victim in Gaza of what many now call “death drops.”

Muhannad had left home with the hope of bringing back food for his starving family, but instead returned lifeless, carried on the shoulders of mourners. His mother still waits for him, unable to believe he is gone. His father pleads that no other child should meet the same fate, urging for border crossings to be opened so aid can enter safely by land rather than through dangerous parachutes.

Despite warnings from Palestinian groups and humanitarian organisations, Israel allowed airdrop operations to resume on 26 July, a move seen as a public relations gesture to deflect international outrage over the famine. Yet these drops cover less than half a percent of Gaza’s daily needs, leaving the population in the grip of hunger while presenting an illusion of relief.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has already warned that airdrops will not stop Gaza’s famine, but may instead cost more innocent lives. For Muhannad, and for countless other Palestinians, what was meant to symbolise help fell instead as tragedy, another cruel reminder of a siege that denies even the most basic right to survive.