A US military official announced that the United States has begun airdrops of aid, including food, over Gaza. The Palestinian population is facing a serious humanitarian crisis after several months of war.
The United States on Saturday began airdrops of aid to Gaza, which faces a grave humanitarian crisis after nearly five months of war, a U.S. military official said. Three American military planes dropped food on the Gaza Strip, bombed and besieged by the Israeli army, in order to “help civilians affected by the current conflict”, said an official of the American military command for the Middle East. Orient (Centcom) on condition of anonymity.
“Innocents are trapped in a terrible war”
The planes dropped “66 packages containing meals without pork” on Saturday afternoon local time in Gaza, the official said, adding that he could not specify the total weight. US President Joe Biden declared on Friday that Washington would join “in the coming days”, and for the first time, with “Jordan and other countries by airdropping food and other goods” on Gaza.
“Innocent people are trapped in a terrible war, unable to feed their families, and you saw the response when they tried to get help,” he added, referring to the distribution of aid turned into tragedy on Thursday in Gaza.
Hamas accuses the Israeli army of killing 115 people by shooting into a hungry crowd rushing towards aid trucks. The Israeli army admitted “limited shooting” and claimed that most of the victims had died in a “stampede”. Until now, the United States, Israel’s main supporter, had not carried out such aid drops, judging their effectiveness to be limited. Joe Biden also mentioned on Friday “the possibility of a maritime corridor to transport large quantities of aid”.