Air bridge for Gaza: Can she really help? The situation in the morning

Good morning, dear readers!

The growing pressure from abroad, also from Germany, apparently has an effect: the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has given in. Since Sunday, Israel has been leaving major aid deliveries in the Gaza Strip for the first time in months. After all, a little ray of hope for the starving people there.

Meanwhile, other states remove relief supplies from the air: Jordan and the United Arab Emirates began care on Sunday in coordination with the Israeli army. Now Germany is followed.

The federal government plans to supply the Gaza Strip out of the air together with Jordan. Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced on Monday that the air bridge should start “immediately”. How many aircraft the Bundeswehr provides for this remained open. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius will prepare the campaign and coordinate closely with France and Great Britain, which have also signaled support. The Jordanian king Abdullah II is expected in Berlin on Tuesday – then further details should follow.

But can such a air bridge alleviate the catastrophic location in the Gaza Strip? In any case, there is plenty of criticism.

“Humanitarian relief supplies from the air is a senseless initiative that smells of cynicism,” says Jean Guy Vataux, emergency coordinator of doctors without borders in the Gaza Strip. “There are streets, the trucks are there, the food and medication are there – everything is ready to bring humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.” Air drops are inefficient: they include fewer than 20 tons that a single truck could easily transport. In addition, people could be injured by falling pallets.

“The only thing that is needed now is the decision of the Israeli authorities to enable imports through the land path.”

The Chancellor also knows that an air bridge for Gaza can do little: “We know that this can only be a very little help for the people of Gaza. But at least it is a contribution that we would like to make.”

But the auxiliary deliveries are far from sufficient. UN-NOTILFEKOORDINATER TOM Fletcher calls them a “drop on the hot stone”. It takes more – much more.

This is probably why Merz also increases the pressure on Israel at the same time. He calls for a rapid improvement in the situation and threatens consequences if this does not happen. He was silent about which these are. “But we reserve such steps.” The suspension of the EU Association Agreement with Israel has been in the room for a long time. The SPD also includes demands to stop arms deliveries to Israel.

The German population supports a harder course: three quarters of Germans want more pressure on Netanyahu and its government. According to a Forsa survey on behalf of the star 74 percent speak out for tightening the course to end the war. 22 percent are against it, four percent were not expressed. You can read details about the survey here:

Donald Trump likes to practice pressure. Deadlines are his preferred tool: if there is no deal until then, then you have a problem! With me! This was recently felt by many states at the customs negotiations. Now it also hits Vladimir Putin. Whereby: the pressure was already there. Now Trump follows.

“Ten to twelve days” the US President gives his Russian counterpart to end the Ukraine war. Trump had previously announced that the 50-day ultimate running since mid-July. He was “disappointed” by Putin, he said. “There is no reason to wait. We see no progress.” If the Kremlin does not act, Trump threatens – what else – tariffs of 100 percent against China, India and Brazil, which continue to buy cheap oil and gas from Russia.

Praise for Trump’s tightened course came from Kyiv. “I thank President Trump for his focus on saving human life and the end of this terrible war,” said President Wolodymyr Selenskyj.

In Moscow you threaten back – with saber rattles. Dmitri Medvedev, Russia’s former president, warned that Trump’s Ultimats could lead directly to a war. “Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country,” he threatened. Medvedev, now head of the National Security Council, still has a great influence in Moscow. “Russia is not Israel or Iran,” he added – a swipe at the Middle East conflict in which the United States attacked Iran on Israel’s side to stop its nuclear program.

We stay with Trump’s foreign policy: Whether trade policy, defense or Ukraine – Europe and Germany currently feel how Trump masters world politics, how everything goes according to his will. Why is that? Do we underestimate him? And is the US president really succeed in everything? The star-Reporter Miriam Hollstein and Veit Medick discuss the uncanny power of the president in our podcast “5-minute talk”:

Many people continue to starve in the Gaza strip, especially children – despite the assisted help. But there are also positive developments worldwide: According to a UN report in 2024, the number of starvings fell for the third year in a row. According to the report on nutritional security published on Monday, around 673 million people or 8.2 percent of the world population suffered from hunger, compared to 8.5 percent in 2023. The decline is primarily due to better access to food in South America and India.

But there is a downside: In Africa, hunger is more widespread today than 20 years ago. There the population grows faster than productivity increases, and conflicts, extreme weather conditions and inflation tighten the situation. In 2024, 307 million people were chronically malnourished on the continent. By 2030, almost 60 percent of the world’s hunger could live in Africa, according to the forecast.

Above all, the report illuminated chronic, long -term problems and does not cover the full effects of acute crises such as in the Gaza Strip, the authors said.

Higher tariffs for the EU countries, lower for the United States. Ursula von der Leyen negotiated a bad deal with Donald Trump. There are three reasons behind it:

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I wish you a good start to Tuesday! Warm, you