France, Aug. 1 -- France will begin air-dropping 40 tonnes of food supplies into the Gaza Strip from Jordan on Friday. The territory has been under a full blockade imposed by Israel for several months.

"There will be several flights - four in total - each carrying 10 tonnes of humanitarian cargo," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrottold FranceInfo.

"This is emergency aid, but of course it is not sufficient," he said, describing the situation as "revolting". Barrot added that "in the first half of July alone, no fewer than 5,000 children under the age of five were admitted for treatment due to acute malnutrition".

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitoring body, said this week that a famine ...