Jordan air-drops aid into Gaza with help of French plane

The Jordanian army on Monday said it had carried out a series of humanitarian aid drops of food and other supplies into the besieged Gaza Strip, one of them by a French army plane.

Jordanian forces made "four air drops carrying aid for the people of Gaza", under the directive of Jordanian King Abdullah II, a statement said.

The operation came on the same day that two human rights groups accused Israel of further limiting humanitarian aid into Gaza -- where the UN has warned of famine -- despite an order from the UN's top court.

Jordan has conducted a total of 16 air-drop operations since the war broke out on October 7 between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza.

Previously announced air drops, including a joint operation with the Netherlands, sent medical and other aid to the Jordanian field hospital in northern Gaza.

Monday's operation "aimed at delivering aid to the population directly and drop it along the coast of the Gaza Strip from north to south," the Jordanian army statement said.

It comprised "relief and food supplies, including ready-made meals of high nutritional value, to alleviate the suffering of the people of the Gaza Strip", the statement added.

"Four C-130 aircraft, one of them belonging to the French armed forces," carried out the deliveries, it said.

The cargo floated down on parachutes from the transport aircraft, including over the southern Gaza Strip where around 1.4 million Gazans have converged.

In November Israel said it had coordinated an air drop with Jordan.

Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Israel's retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive has killed at least 29,782 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest tally by the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.