Five people were killed and several injured after a humanitarian parachute landed and failed to open, causing a pallet to fall onto a crowd of people waiting for food north of the refugee camp of Shati, in Gaza City.
The government media office in Gaza confirmed the number of casualties after Friday’s incident, lambasting the “unnecessary” airdrops as “high-profile propaganda rather than a humanitarian service” and calling for food to be allowed to cross land crossing points.
“We had previously warned that this posed a threat to the lives of citizens in the Gaza Strip and this is what happened today when the packages fell on the heads of citizens,” he said. declared in a press release.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud said from Rafah that people are experiencing “a tragedy” in northern Gaza.
“Not only do they face lack of food and medical supplies, but while waiting for food packages, they are either targeted by the Israeli army or killed by a non-functional parachute,” Mahmoud said .
The deaths came as famine raged in the enclave, with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reporting last month that at least half a million, or one in four people in Gaza, were facing hunger. starvation.
This highlighted the problem of delivering desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza amid Israeli restrictions.
UNRWA, the largest UN agency in Gaza, says Israeli authorities have not allowed it to deliver supplies to the northern Strip since January 23.
The World Food Program, which had suspended deliveries to Gaza due to security concerns, said the army forced its first northbound convoy in two weeks to turn back on Tuesday.
In response, a number of countries – including the United States, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt – have carried out airdrops, which have been criticized by humanitarian agencies as a costly and ineffective way to deliver food and medical supplies.
On Wednesday, the WFP said the controversial method should be considered “a last resort.” In contrast, he said the week’s airdrops had only delivered six tons of food, while a convoy of 14 broken-down trucks would have brought 200 tons of food to people.
#Airdrops are only a last resort to reach northern Gaza. Roads are the only way to transport the large quantities of food that are desperately needed to avoid #famine.
In comparison:
🪂 This week’s airdrops = 6 tons of food
🚛This week’s failed convoy of 14 trucks = 200 tons of food pic.twitter.com/xkR3ZfDgmt— WFP in the Middle East and North Africa (@WFP_MENA) March 6, 2024
On Friday, Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s communications director, told Tel Aviv Tribune: “There is an easier and cheaper way to get much-needed supplies into the Gaza Strip… It is by road, including by sending more trucks from Israel to the Gaza Strip.
“When there is political will, there is a way,” she said, adding that so far desperately needed supplies have not been delivered quickly enough and “ much more is needed” to transport the Gaza Strip.
Friday’s disaster came only a day after US President Joe Biden announced a complicated workaround to build a temporary pier off the Gaza coast to deliver aid, a move criticized as an attempt to divert attention to looming famine and Israel’s continued blocking of aid to the enclave.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the UK would participate in the project, but said “it would take time to build”.
While welcoming the development, he nevertheless urged Israel to open its own port of Ashdod in the meantime.
“We need to make a difference now,” he said.
Meanwhile, a maritime corridor bringing aid from Cyprus to the besieged enclave – a collaboration of several partners, including European countries, the United States and the United Arab Emirates – could be established as early as this weekend, according to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der. Leyen.