Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox
Get our free Inside Washington email
The US military has dropped about 38,000 meals over Gaza two days after more than 100 Palestinians were killed after attempting to get aid from a convoy.
Three planes dropped 66 bundles carrying the meals at about 8.30am ET on Saturday, two US officials said, according to the AP. The Jordanian Air Force has also dropped aid parcels over Gaza.
Asked on Friday if there will be a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas before Ramadan, President Joe Biden said: “I’m hoping so. We’re still working real hard at it. We’re not there yet.”
The airdrop on Saturday morning is expected to be followed up by many others after Mr Biden’s Friday announcement that the US would start contributing aid to Gaza. The drops will be coordinated with Jordan.
On Thursday, at least 115 Palestinians were killed and hundreds were injured when they tried to get aid, the Gazan Healthy Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, said.
Israel argues that many of those who died were killed in a stampede trying to get to the aid and that Israeli troops fired warning shorts after the crowd moved against them in a threatening manner.
On Friday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that the airdrops were set to deliver emergency aid in a safe way. The US thinks the drops will alleviate some of the suffering in Gaza, but they cannot replace the trucks needing to enter the area, as trucks have much larger capacities. But what took place on Thursday revealed the risks of delivering aid on the ground.
Members of the Jordanian Armed Forces prepare to air drop aid parcels to several areas in northern Gaza, in this undated handout picture released on March 1, 202
(via REUTERS)
Mr Kirby said that the airdrops have the advantage of speed with the ability to quickly deliver aid to a particular location. But he noted that the drops will be “a supplement to, not a replacement for moving things in by ground,” according to the AP.
The US used C-130 cargo planes to deliver the aid. The plane can lift 42,000 lbs of cargo, which can be fastened to pallets and dropped to the ground using parachutes. The plane has been used to deliver aid in areas such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Haiti.
Following Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October, when about 1,200 Israelis were killed, Israel has blocked food, water, medicine, and other aid from entering Gaza apart from a small number of trucks getting into the area at the Rafah crossing at the border with Egypt and the Israel crossing at Kerem Shalom, the AP noted.
Jordanian Armed Forces members air drop aid parcels to several areas in northern Gaza, in this undated handout picture released on March 1, 2024
(via REUTERS)
A quarter of the 2.3 million people in Gaza are at risk of starvation, according to the UN, and aid officials have said that airdrops are a last resort and not an efficient way of sending aid.
More than 30,000 Gazans have been killed since the beginning of the war, health officials have said.