Chef Jose Andres says Gaza airdrops must be increased and calls for maritime aid bridge

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A maritime aid corridor must be established to deliver food aid to Gaza, airdrops should be continuous, and Israel should open up new road crossings into the besieged territory, philanthropist chef Jose Andres has said.
More than four months of Israeli bombardment has reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble and left more the more than two million residents on the brink of famine.
A Michelin and James Beard Award-winning chef, Mr Andres founded the World Central Kitchen charity in 2010 to rush food to disaster zones, often delivering meals long before governments could organise their own relief operations.
He said he has been lobbying the Biden administration to join a Jordan-led effort to airdrop food into Gaza.
Late last week, President Joe Biden announced the US would do so and shortly afterwards it delivered 38,000 pre-made meals along the Gaza coastline.
Several other nations including the UAE, France, Bahrain and Egypt have signed up to participate.
“I am very proud and I am very happy that the US is finally joining the initiative of King Abdullah [II of Jordan] and the other countries, and hopefully doing not only one massive airdrop in the north but continuing ones,” Mr Andres said at an event at the National Press Club in Washington on Friday.
“It needs to happen every day, massive waves. People are hungry. This is already a humanitarian disaster. The least we can do is make sure that everybody is fed and provided with food and water. That is the least we can do for the people of Palestine.”
Mr Andres said World Central Kitchen has already provided almost 34 million meals since the war started after the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7 and his charity is now delivering more than 60 per cent of all non-governmental food aid into Gaza.
He personally took part in an airdrop last month along with King Abdullah, and his organisation has bought more food that is being stored in Jordan, ready to be airdropped.
Food airdrops are a short temporary but powerful way to deliver some food to the north! I’mProud of the leadership of @KingAbdullahII to make it happen and for allowing @WCKitchen to join his efforts! It began just for the Jordanian Hospital, but proud that changed to more meals… https://t.co/lW4bdSQtB1 pic.twitter.com/tqbkKIgAkr
Mr Andres, who co-chairs President Biden’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, said the humanitarian disaster in Gaza “could be stopped tomorrow” if Israel would allow it.
“If Israel would open just two more spots immediately … we can get enough trucks from the south and from the north, and we could be covering all of Gaza quick and fast. Could that be happening tomorrow? Totally. Why is that not happening? Because of politics,” he said, noting that the only person who can stop the war is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr Biden’s stalwart support of Israel in its brutal response to the Hamas attacks on October 7 has drawn broad condemnation from many of his own supporters, particularly the Arab-American community and progressives, and he risks losing November’s general election over it.
But Mr Andres said he thought the Biden administration is working behind the scenes to try to resolve the crisis.
“I do believe the Biden Administration, behind the public message, is doing a lot of pushing to make sure a ceasefire is achieved,” he said.
Mr Andres also called for the establishment of a maritime aid corridor that would send flotillas of food-laden ships that had been packed and inspected in Cyprus to Gaza’s beaches.
The idea was first put forward by Nicosia in November but remains under discussion, and Israel maintains a naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
“Right now it seems like almost impossible. But the airdrops also seemed impossible not too long ago,” Mr Andres said.
On Saturday, a senior Biden administration official told reporters that the US is considering pushing for a sea route to deliver aid from the Mediterranean.
“We have been in touch with officials in Israel, in Cyprus, working with the UN, working with potential commercial entities, to see if we can set up a maritime route as well that would deliver assistance directly into Gaza by sea,” the official said.
Before Gaza, World Central Kitchen has inserted itself into the immediate aftermath of disasters across the planet, often arriving within hours of catastrophic events such as a volcanic eruption, hurricanes and wildfires.
Mr Andres said his charity encourages staff to think on their feet and conjure up resources from local governmental and non-governmental groups.
“We didn’t follow a plan. We adapted,” he said. “That is why we have been able to respond.”
Born in Spain in 1969, Mr Andres moved to Washington in 1993 and helped popularise Spanish tapas – small plates to share – nationwide.
His restaurant empire now includes New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, and he has hundreds of employees around the world and thousands of donors to World Central Kitchen.
Since its foundation, World Central Kitchen has provided healthy food and water in several places in urgent need around the world, such as the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Zambia, Cuba, Peru, Uganda, Cambodia, and Poland.
Mr Andres has drawn some scrutiny for the tempo at which he deploys workers and volunteers into dangerous areas, but he said speed is imperative.
Food is needed “not a month from today. Not a week from today. At this moment. The urgency of now is yesterday,” he said.
He said that in the worst moments, “the best of humanity shows up, usually in unbelievable ways.”
“When we go to disasters, we only see people helping people,” he said.
World Central Kitchen is now entering its third year of continuous support in Ukraine since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.
Mr Andres’s organisation has cooked meals at an unprecedented pace for Ukrainians: over 1.5 million rations a day.
In total, over 260 million meals – and counting – in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, with a team of 5,000 people and more than 550 restaurants working with them.
Mr Andres said he took one of his daughters into Ukraine with him, not an easy choice for a father to make.
“I do believe by showing them the world we live in and helping make a better world is the way I will keep my daughters protected,” he said.