Humanitarian aid supplies are airdropped by military cargo planes over the western part of Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on Monday. Anadolu/Getty Images

In the central Gazan town of Al-Zawayda, scores of Palestinians rushed to collect boxes of aid that were dropped from the sky on Monday.

For many, the food in these boxes will be the only meal they eat today. But many say that having no choice but to chase after airdropped aid is an insult to their dignity.

“This aid is disgraceful. We are not dogs to be made to run after aid,” Ahmad Faiz Fayyad told CNN. “We’d rather die of hunger with dignity than die in humiliation and filth.”

Jordan and the United Arab Emirates carried out their first airdrops into Gaza over the weekend, attempting to combat starvation in the enclave caused by Israel’s blockade.

“The people doing this have no shame,” said Fayyad. “We want the aid to come in by land and be distributed through institutions, so that people can receive it with dignity and honor.”

Fayyad said he did not collect any aid and did not want to, while dozens of others scrambled to reach the UAE Red Crescent-marked boxes. As a crowd of people picked up the boxes from the ground, gunshots rang out, causing many to panic and flee, CNN video showed.

One man said he managed to collect some flour, but that it would not be enough to feed his family of eight. Another elderly woman said she hadn’t managed to reach the food because she was almost crushed in the crowd.

Others were grateful to receive food, but said the method of airdropping aid only risked more violence.

“I took this box, thank God. It will help ease the hunger we’re facing. Praise be to God and thank you to everyone who helped us,” Mohammad Al-Bara’a told CNN.

“This is enough for us, but you can see and hear what’s happening—people are fighting to the death over aid. There are no words to describe what you’re seeing.”

The United Nations has warned that airdropping aid into Gaza is “very, very expensive” and often dangerous.

“Why use airdrops when you can drive hundreds of trucks through the borders,” Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the main UN agency for Palestinian refugees, told CNN last week. “It’s much easier, more effective, faster, cheaper and safer.”

Speaking as Starmer and his wife Victoria arrived for talks, Trump was pressed by reporters on whether he agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assessment that there is “no starvation” in Gaza, amid an outcry from aid organizations and the United Nations.

The U.S. president rejected Netanyahu’s characterization, saying: “Based on television, I would say not particularly, because those children look very hungry — but we’re giving a lot of money and a lot of food, and other nations are now stepping up.”

Starmer, who faces intense domestic pressure over Gaza, including from MPs in his own party, then chimed in to say: “It’s a humanitarian crisis. It’s an absolute catastrophe. Nobody wants to see that. And I think people in Britain are revolted at what they’re seeing on their screens.”

Trump vows food centers

Speaking after their meeting, Trump said Israel bears “a lot of responsibility” for the hunger facing the people of Gaza — but hinted at a new joint effort to try and improve the situation.

“We’re going to set up four centers … where the people can walk in — and no boundaries,” he said. “We’re not going to have fences.”

He added of the current situation: “They see the food. It’s all there, but nobody’s at it because they have fences set up that nobody can even get. It’s crazy what’s going on over there.”

Just when it seemed that Europe’s moral failure over Gaza was complete, the head of state of one EU country has stood up with a powerful message of moral clarity. King Philippe of Belgium, whose direct political statements are rare, condemned the grave humanitarian abuses in Gaza as “a disgrace to humanity”.

In a televised address to mark Belgium’s national day on 21 July, Philippe said: “I stand with all those who denounce the grave humanitarian abuses in Gaza, where innocent civilians, trapped in their enclave, are dying of hunger and being killed by bombs.” The monarch said he fully supported the calls of the UN secretary general, António Guterres, to end “this unbearable crisis”. From the royal palace in Brussels, the king added: “The current situation has dragged on for far too long. It is a disgrace to humanity.”

After a weekend in which at least 100 people across Gaza were killed as they sought food and water – violence that elicited no formal EU response – the monarch’s message stood out. He spoke of a recent meeting with Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aramin – two fathers, one Israeli and one Palestinian, who had each lost a daughter in earlier outbreaks of violence in the Middle East. “They have put aside any desire for revenge and have chosen to transform their pain into a message of peace,” he said. “It is always human dignity that is at stake.”

The king’s speech resonated beyond Belgium. The Dutch national broadcaster NOS openly questioned why King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands had not made a similar statement.

As a constitutional monarch, Philippe has limited formal powers. His two annual addresses – on Belgium’s national day and Christmas Eve – are reviewed by the prime minister before broadcast. But this year’s remarks stood in sharp contrast to the federal government and the prime minister, Bart De Wever, a Flemish nationalist. His party, the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), Belgium’s largest, includes several outspoken defenders of Israel’s military operations in Gaza. De Wever has resisted calls to impose sanctions on Israel. He even questioned whether Belgium would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, as international law would require if the Israeli prime minister were to visit the country.

Transcending domestic politics, Philippe issued a broader call to action: “Europe must assert its leadership even more strongly. It must stand as a bulwark against – and a worthy alternative to – the brutal power struggles we are witnessing today.”

Given the EU’s intolerable silence on Israel’s war crimes, human rights violations and the deepening humanitarian catastrophe, it was a relief to hear at least one head of state speak the truth out loud. EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels last week failed to take action against Israel, prompting an accusation of “cruel and unlawful betrayal” of Palestinians from Amnesty International. Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that France would recognise Palestinian statehood in September, while important, remains symbolic in the absence of any economic, financial or diplomatic sanctions.

The king, who was speaking just days after an audience with humanitarian organisations working in Gaza, highlighted the failure to uphold international law. “For decades, international law was the cornerstone upon which states could rely,” he said. “Today, that is being openly called into question. But when international law is trampled, the whole world suffers. Unpredictability and violence are then given free rein.”

View image in fullscreen King Philippe records his annual televised address for this year’s national day. Photograph: Didier Lebrun/AP

While praising collective efforts to meet challenges such as the climate crisis, digital transformation and defence cooperation, Philippe urged EU leaders to “remain true to our values: democracy, justice and the rule of law”. In a political landscape increasingly dominated by realpolitik, here was a voice insisting on the ethical foundations of the European project.

The Belgian king has a consistent record of opposing discrimination and upholding human rights. After a deadly terror attack on the Jewish museum in Brussels in 2014, he made an official visit to the site. In 2015, he invited a large delegation of rabbis and Jewish community leaders to the palace after the dismantling of Islamist terrorist cells in Brussels and Verviers.

His moral stance has deep roots in the Belgian monarchy. His great-grandmother Queen Elisabeth was recognised by Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. During the second world war, she used her position as queen mother to intervene on behalf of Jews facing deportation. According to Yad Vashem, “these interventions by a member of a royal family in Europe on behalf of Jews were unparalleled”.

Since its independence in 1830, Belgium has granted full civil rights to Jews – except during the years of Nazi occupation. Those rights, including freedom of religion, expression and the press, are enshrined in the Belgian constitution.

More recently, in 2022, Philippe undertook his first visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the former Belgian colony that was founded and brutally exploited by his ancestor Léopold II. While visiting DRC, the king expressed his “deepest regrets” for the suffering inflicted by Belgian colonialism. “The colonial regime itself was based on exploitation and domination,” he said. It was “marked by paternalism, discrimination and racism”.

The fact that Philippe’s defence of international law and his remarks on the suffering in Gaza felt like news shows how timid Europe’s elected leaders have been. He was saying only what they should have said months ago.

Of course, his remarks won’t end the war. But they should remind Europe – and the world – that silence in the face of injustice amounts to complicity.

And that in times of political cowardice, a constitutional monarch can still be a moral leader.

David Van Reybrouck is philosopher laureate for the Netherlands and Flanders. His books include Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World, and Congo: The Epic History of a People

Merz said he would await the result of a planned trip of his foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, to the Middle East set for Thursday before evaluating possible next steps. At the same time, Merz said he was unable to comment when a reporter asked about a possible suspension of German weapons deliveries to Israel.

Germany is traditionally one of Israel’s closest allies, but pressure has been building on Merz to take concrete action to sanction Israel, including from inside his own coalition — in particular from members of the center-left Social Democratic Party. Merz’s comments mark the first time he has raised the possibility of sanctioning Israel over its actions in Gaza.

International pressure has also mounted on Merz in recent days as leaders of other European countries have urged concrete action. Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would move to recognize a Palestinian state.

Merz said the German government would work with Jordan to participate in the airlift of food and medical supplies into Gaza, saying Defense Minsiter Boris Pistorius will coordinate closely with France and the U.K.

“We know that this can only be a very small help for the people in Gaza, but at least it is a contribution that we are happy to make,” Merz said.

Berlin is growing closer to supporting such a sanction against Israel, amid harrowing reports from Gaza of Palestinians suffering starvation and violence. | Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images

A Brussels plan to suspend Israel’s participation in the Horizon research program needs to win more backing from countries.

BRUSSELS — European Union countries are moving toward agreeing a plan to punish Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza but stopped short of triggering the penalty at a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.

The European Commission has proposed partially suspending Israel’s association agreement with the EU, to curtail the country’s access to a key research and development program for start-ups. The plan comes in response to a Commission review that found Israel was in breach of its human-rights obligations under the terms of the deal.

EU countries’ ambassadors discussed the Commission’s proposal at a meeting Tuesday but there was no qualified majority in favor of pressing ahead with it now, according to three diplomats speaking to POLITICO on condition of anonymity because the matter is sensitive.