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In this image obtained from the US Department of Defense, a US Air Force loadmaster releases humanitarian aid pallets of food and water over Gaza, 2 March 2024. Israel’s top ally, the US, said it began air-dropping aid into war-ravaged Gaza on 2 March 2024, as the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry reported more than a dozen child malnutrition deaths. (Christopher Hubenthal / US Department of Defense / AFP)
- International efforts to
provide humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea due to overland access restrictions by
Israel are underway. - A recent airdrop operation
turned lethal due to a parachute malfunction, resulting in five Palestinian
deaths and ten injuries. - The United Nations has
warned of looming famine in Gaza, and US President Joe Biden has urged Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow in more aid.
An
international effort gathered pace on Friday to get desperately needed
humanitarian relief into Gaza by sea, in the latest bid to counter overland
access restrictions blamed on Israel as it battles Hamas militants.
The dire
conditions more than five months into the war have led some countries to
airdrop food and other assistance over the besieged Gaza Strip, but a parachute
malfunction turned the latest operation lethal.
Five
Palestinians were killed and 10 wounded north of the coastal Al-Shati refugee
camp, said Mohammed al-Sheikh, emergency room head nurse at Gaza City’s
Al-Shifa hospital.
A witness
told AFP he and his brother followed the parachuted aid in the hope of getting
“a bag of flour”.
DEVELOPING | Gaza ceasefire by Ramadan ‘looking tough’ – Biden
“Then,
all of a sudden, the parachute didn’t open and fell down like a rocket,”
hitting a house, said Mohammed al-Ghoul.
Both
Jordan’s military and a US defence official denied that aircraft from either
country caused the fatalities.
The airdrop
was also carried out in partnership with Belgium, Egypt, France and the
Netherlands.
In the
Cypriot port of Larnaca, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen
expressed hope that a maritime corridor could open this Sunday, though crucial
details of the planned operation remained unclear.
She said
that “an initial pilot operation” would be launched on Friday, and
the United Arab Emirates had helped activate the corridor “by securing the
first of many shipments of goods to the people of Gaza”.
Her
announcement came after US President Joe Biden, in Thursday’s annual State of
the Union address, said that the US military would establish a “temporary
pier” off Gaza’s coast to bring in aid.
On Friday,
Biden told reporters that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must allow
in more aid.
“Yes,
he does,” he said when asked if Netanyahu needed to do more to let relief
into the Palestinian territory.
The United
Nations has repeatedly warned of looming famine in the long-blockaded Gaza
Strip, which has been under Israeli siege since the Hamas attack of 7 October
triggered the war.
UN agencies
have urged increased overland access, insisting that air or sea delivery was
ineffective.
Biden
admitted that hopes for a new truce deal before Ramadan, the Muslim fasting
month that could begin on Sunday depending on the lunar calendar, were
“looking tough” as he warned Israeli leaders against using aid as
“a bargaining chip”.
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