Israel-Gaza war: US conducts emergency relief airlift on the Strip

The United States carried out its first air drop of humanitarian aid to Gaza, parachuting more than 30,000 meals into the country on three military planes.

The operation was conducted jointly with the Jordanian Air Force and was the first of many announced by President Joe Biden.

He pledged to step up support after crowds stormed a motorcade on Thursday, killing at least 112 people.

The airlift came after a senior US official said the framework was in place for an agreement for a six-week ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement that C-130 transport aircraft dropped more than 38,000 meals along the territory’s coastline on Saturday.

“These airdrops are part of continued efforts to obtain more aid to Gaza, including expanding aid flows through land and routes,” it added.

Other countries, including Britain, France, Egypt and Jordan, have previously provided airlift aid to Gaza, but this is the first time the United States has provided airlift aid.

Administration officials said Thursday’s “tragic incident” highlighted “the importance of scaling up and sustaining the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza in response to the dire humanitarian situation.”

Aid agencies say airdrops are an inefficient way to deliver aid.

Medhat Taher, a displaced Gazan resident, told Reuters such measures were woefully inadequate.

“Is this enough for a school? Is this enough for 10,000 people?” he said. “It’s better to use crosswalks to send aid than airdrops with parachutes.”

President Biden said in a statement Friday that the United States will “insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and routes to bring needed aid to more people.”

Meanwhile, a Biden administration official said Saturday that Israel has “more or less accepted” a new ceasefire agreement.

“Starting today, there will be a six-week ceasefire in Gaza if Hamas agrees to release defined categories of vulnerable hostages: the sick, wounded, elderly and women,” the anonymous official said.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with Israel’s wartime cabinet secretary, Benny Gantz, in Washington on Monday to discuss the cease-fire and other issues, Reuters reported, citing a senior White House official.

Thursday’s incident left 112 people dead and more than 760 injured as they swarmed around an aid truck in the southwestern edge of Gaza City.

Hamas accused Israel of firing at civilians, but Israel claimed most were crushed to death after warning shots.

Giorgios Petropoulos, head of the Gaza office of the United Nations Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told the BBC that he and a team sent to Al Shifa hospital found a number of people suffering from gunshot wounds.

Meanwhile, Hamas said on Saturday that at least 11 people had been killed by Israeli shelling at a camp in Rafah in southern Gaza. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the attack was “outrageous”. The Israeli military said it had carried out “precision strikes” against Islamic Jihad militants in the region.

The United Nations’ World Food Program has warned of impending famine in northern Gaza, which has received little aid in recent weeks and where an estimated 300,000 people live with little food and clean water.

On October 7, the Israeli military launched a major air and ground operation to crush Hamas after insurgents killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 253 hostages back to Gaza. .

The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry said more than 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 21,000 children and women, about 7,000 are missing and at least 70,450 injured.