After five months of war, the disastrous humanitarian situation in the territory led several Arab and Western countries, including the United States and France, to carry out new airdrops of food and medical aid on Friday. But the fall of packages dropped by planes on Gaza City killed five people on Friday and injured ten, according to a hospital source.
Information to remember:
- Falling packages dropped by planes on Gaza City killed five people on Friday
- Ursula von der Leyen hopes for the opening of a maritime corridor on Sunday to transport humanitarian assistance from the Mediterranean island
- The United States puts increasing pressure on Israel
- According to the UN, of the 2.4 million inhabitants in the cramped territory, 2.2 million are threatened with famine
- Israel says it is preparing a ground offensive on Rafah, on the Egyptian border, where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are massed according to the UN
- The war also led to an outbreak of violence in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
Packages dropped by planes in Gaza City kill five people
“When the planes started dropping the cargo, me and my brother went to the area hoping to get a bag of flour,” said Mohammed al-Ghoul, a 50-year-old man living in the camp. refugees from al-Shati where the accident took place. “But the parachute did not open and the cargo fell like a rocket onto the roof of one of the houses,” he explained.
The Jordanian and American armies affirmed that none of their aircraft was at the origin of the tragedy. “We extend our deepest sympathies to the families of those who were killed,” the US Middle East Command (Centcom) said in a statement on Friday. “Contrary to some reports, this is not the consequence of American airdrops.” Belgium, Egypt, France and the Netherlands are also carrying out aid drops into the territory.
Ursula von der Leyen hopes for the opening of a maritime corridor
Faced with the insufficiency of land aid, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday in Cyprus that she hoped for the opening on Sunday of a maritime corridor making it possible to transport humanitarian assistance from the Mediterranean island, located some 370 kilometers from Gaza. This announcement followed that of US President Joe Biden on Thursday on a major humanitarian operation by sea involving the construction of a “temporary pier” in Gaza to allow the arrival of “massive aid”.
The Pentagon said Friday that construction of the structure will take up to 60 days and will likely involve more than 1,000 troops. The temporary port “could provide more than two million meals per day to the citizens of Gaza,” detailed its spokesperson, Pat Ryder.
The United States puts increasing pressure on Israel
Joe Biden said Friday that Benjamin Netanyahu must allow more humanitarian aid to flow after he was caught saying he would have a frank discussion with the Israeli prime minister over the war in Gaza. The United States is putting increasing pressure on Israel, their ally, which has besieged Gaza since October 9 and only lets in aid trucks from Egypt.
According to the UN, of the 2.4 million inhabitants in the cramped territory, 2.2 million are at risk of famine with significant shortages of food and drinking water and 1.7 million have been displaced by the fighting and the Israeli strikes which caused colossal destruction.
For the UN, which warns of an “almost inevitable widespread famine” in Gaza, airdrops, as well as sending aid by sea, cannot replace the land route. According to the Hamas health ministry, at least 20 civilians, most of them children, died of malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza.
At least 78 people have died in the last 24 hours
After five months of a devastating war triggered on October 7 by a bloody attack by Hamas against Israel, Israeli strikes on Gaza have seen no respite: in the last 24 hours, at least 78 people have died, bringing the death toll to 30,878. dead in Gaza since the start of the conflict according to the authorities of the Islamist movement. Israeli soldiers have captured large areas of Palestinian territory since launching their ground offensive on October 27, including the small port of Gaza.
Occupied by the Israeli army from 1967 to 2005, the Gaza Strip, already subject to an Israeli blockade since Hamas took power in 2007, is bordered by Israel, Egypt which keeps its border closed and the Mediterranean Sea. .
The war was sparked on October 7 by an attack of unprecedented scale by Hamas which resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, most of them civilians, in southern Israel, according to an AFP count. established from official sources. Around 250 people were also kidnapped and taken to Gaza that day, and 130 hostages are still being held there, 31 of whom Israel says are dead. In response, Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union.
Israel says it is preparing a ground offensive on Rafah
To achieve “total victory”, Israel says it is preparing a ground offensive on Rafah, on the Egyptian border, where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are massed according to the UN. After four days of unsuccessful negotiations in Cairo, negotiations on a truce involving the mediating countries – Egypt, Qatar, United States – are due to resume next week, according to pro-government Egyptian media.
The mediators hoped to be able to reach an agreement on a truce combined with a release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners before Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for Muslims, which will begin after the appearance of the first crescent moon, Sunday or Monday .
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday it was up to Hamas to agree to a truce with Israel, but the group’s military wing said Hamas would make “no compromise” on its demands for a ceasefire. definitive fire and a withdrawal of Israeli troops in exchange for any agreement on the release of the hostages. Later in the day, President Biden said it would be “difficult” to achieve a ceasefire before Ramadan.
The war also led to an outbreak of violence in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, where Israeli forces killed a member of Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas, who had carried out attacks against troops in Silat al-Harithiya, near Jenin.