Berlin, 16 March 2024 (dpa/MIA) — First aid supplies from Germany were dropped by parachute on Saturday over the embattled Gaza Strip as the German military starts its aid mission there, according to dpa information.

The German Armed Forces or Bundeswehr deployed two C-130 Hercules transport aircraft stationed in France to the region. Each aircraft can transport up to 18 tons of cargo.

The aircraft are flying from Jordan, which initiated the air drops. The United States and France are also taking part in the initiative.

Aid organizations describe the situation of the people in the Gaza Strip as increasingly desperate. The United Nations has said that a hunger crisis is looming in the coastal strip if aid deliveries by truck are not expanded.

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.

Many countries have now criticized the actions of the Israeli military.

"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 German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius.

The air force described the unloading procedure as a "gravity drop," in which goods leave the aircraft rolling on a pallet via the loading ramp and reach the ground hanging from parachutes. Technically, the method differs from "dropping," in which loads are dropped to the ground without braking.

The Gaza war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel's history, carried out by terrorists from the Palestinian Islamist Hamas 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.