- Hamas claims five civilians crushed to death by multinational Gaza airstrike
- The United States was among six countries that sent aid packages to the war-torn region.
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Hamas claims five civilians were crushed to death yesterday by the multinational airdrop on Gaza after a parachute carrying one of the packages failed to deploy.
C.B.S. quotes unnamed officials from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry as saying that two of the slain victims were young children. The murdered civilians were reportedly killed in the Al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza when at least one parachute failed to deploy correctly and a package fell on them.
There were also 11 other people injured, aged between 30 and 50 years old.
The United States was among six nations that sent aid packages to the war-torn region last Friday; Jordan, Egypt, France, the Netherlands and Belgium also sent packages.
The State Department has not yet commented on the claims and the UN has not yet verified the report.
Parachutes drop supplies in the northern Gaza Strip, seen from southern Israel, Friday, March 8, 2024.
Three Central Air Force planes dropped 66 packages containing around 38,000 meals in Gaza.
American C-130s dropped more than 38,000 meals along the Gaza coast, allowing civilian access to critical aid.
A video spread on social media shows the group of packages suspended from parachutes before one falls much faster than the rest.
Three Central Air Force planes dropped 66 packages containing around 38,000 meals in Gaza. The bundles were dumped in southwest Gaza, on the beach along the territory’s Mediterranean coast.
The airdrop was coordinated with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, which said it had carried out two food drops on Saturday in northern Gaza and had carried out several rounds in recent months.
Three Biden administration officials said the planes dropped military ready-to-eat meals — non-perishable meals that contain a day’s worth of calories in each sealed package — in locations that were thought to give civilians the highest level of security for access. to help.
The United States later monitored the sites and could see civilians approaching and distributing food to each other, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide additional details that had not been made public.
The US air launch is expected to be the first of many.
The airdrops came after Biden said the US military would build a temporary dock on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast to receive humanitarian aid shipments.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday that the airdrops were planned to safely deliver emergency humanitarian assistance to people on the ground.
Palestinians queue for hours to receive food distributed by charitable organizations, in Deir Balah, Gaza, on March 1, 2024.
Smoke rises following Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip, March 1, 2024. More than 30,200 Palestinians and more than 1,300 Israelis have been killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces. (IDF)
The United States believes airdrops will help address the dire situation in Gaza, but they do not replace trucks, which can carry much more aid more effectively, although Thursday’s events also showed the risks of ground transportation.
The United Nations has warned of famine among Gaza’s 2.3 million residents as the war with Israel continues.
Since the war began on October 7, Israel has banned the entry of food, water, medicine and other supplies, except for a trickle of aid entering the south from Egypt through the Rafah crossing and the Israeli Kerem Shalom crossing.