LAST UPDATE | 2 Mar
ISRAEL’S TOP ALLY the United States has begun air-dropping aid into war-ravaged Gaza, as the territory’s health ministry reported more than a dozen child malnutrition deaths.
The start of the US relief operation came hours after President Joe Biden announced the move and spoke of the “need to do more” after nearly five months of devastating conflict.
It also comes as negotiations continue for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which has been under siege since Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel.
Asenior US official told AFP that Israel has broadly accepted a deal for a six-week Gaza ceasefire and it is now up to Hamas to agree to release the most vulnerable hostages for the deal to take effect.
“There’s a framework deal. The Israelis have more or less accepted it,” the Biden administration official told reporters on a call, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Right now, the ball is in the camp of Hamas.”
Negotiators from regional powers were working “around the clock” to secure the deal by the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is due to start in about one week.
The death toll in Gaza since 7 October now stands at 30,320, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The conflict began with an unprecedented Hamas attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, Israeli figures show.
Israel’s military says 242 soldiers have died in Gaza since ground operations began in late October.
“Humanitarian drop”
“We conducted a combined humanitarian assistance airdrop into Gaza” involving three US Air Force C-130 transport planes to provide “relief to civilians affected by the ongoing conflict,” a US military official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
US Central Command, in a post on social media platform X, said the operation was conducted together with Jordan and saw planes drop “over 38,000 meals along the coastline of Gaza allowing for civilian access to the critical aid”.
The dire humanitarian situation in Gaza has led to the deaths of at least 13 children from “malnutrition and dehydration” in recent days, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
On Thursday, Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinian civilians as a crowd rushed towards aid trucks in Gaza City. The territory’s health ministry said more than 100 people were killed.
The deaths came after a World Food Programme official had warned that “if nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza”.
The Israeli military claimed a “stampede” occurred when thousands of Gazans surrounded the convoy of 30 aid trucks, leading to dozens of deaths and injuries, including some who were run over.
An Israeli source acknowledged troops had opened fire on the crowd, believing it “posed a threat”.
Gaza’s health ministry called it a “massacre”, and said 115 people were killed and more than 750 wounded.
A UN team that visited some of the wounded in Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital yesterday saw a “large number of gunshot wounds”, UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman said.
The hospital received 70 of the dead and treated more than 700 wounded, of whom around 200 were still there during the team’s visit, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
“I’m not aware that our team examined the bodies of people who were killed. My understanding from what they saw in terms of the patients who were alive getting treatments is that there was a large number of gunshot wounds,” he said.
US to ‘insist’ on more aid
In a post on X, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said ”the Israeli army must fully investigate how the mass panic and shooting could have happened”.
Her French counterpart Stephane Sejourne said: “There will have to be an independent probe to determine what happened.”
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, meanwhile, said that “every effort must be made to investigate what happened and ensure transparency”.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin yesterday described the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip as “man made and completely unacceptable”, in reference to the conduct of the Israeli military since October.
In a post on X yesterday, Martin said he was “appalled by the horrible deaths of Palestinians queueing for aid in Gaza city”.
“International humanitarian law is unambiguous – Israel as occupying power must protect civilians & ensure basic services,” he said.
Appalled by the horrible deaths of Palestinians queueing for aid in Gaza city.
— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) March 1, 2024
International humanitarian law is unambiguous - Israel as occupying power must protect civilians & ensure basic services.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is man made and completely unacceptable.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald yesterday called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, telling a summit in the US that those in the region are enduring “unimaginable suffering”.
Aerial footage of Thursday’s incident made clear “just how desperate the situation on the ground is”, a US State Department spokesman said.
Despite warnings from within his administration that air drops “are a drop in the bucket” compared with what is needed, Biden said Washington would begin deliveries from the sky “in the coming days”.
“We need to do more, and the United States will do more,” he told reporters at the White House.
Biden said Thursday’s deaths happened because Gazans were “caught in a terrible war, unable to feed their families”, adding he would “insist” Israel let in more aid trucks.
Reacting to the announcement, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said the very fact air drops were “being considered is testament to the serious access challenges in Gaza”.
“Air drops are not the solution to relieve this suffering, and distract time and effort from proven solutions to help at scale,” it added, calling for a “sustained ceasefire” and for land crossings into Gaza to be reopened to aid shipments.
US official Samantha Power, who oversees USAID, told reporters in Ramallah that an average of just 96 aid trucks were entering Gaza each day – “a fraction of what is needed”.
The aid convoy deaths dealt a blow to efforts to broker a new truce in Gaza to get more aid in and free the remaining Israeli hostages held by Palestinian militants.
Militants took about 250 hostages on 7 October, 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 31 that Israel says are presumed dead.
Biden had said the convoy deaths would complicate truce talks, but told reporters yesterday he was still “hoping” for a deal by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan – starting on 10 or 11 March, depending on the lunar calendar – though he acknowledged it remained uncertain.
Includes reporting by © AFP 2024
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