The controversy over the launch of aid parachutes into Gaza that killed several people

Even without knowing how to swim, desperate Palestinians enter the sea to rescue part of the humanitarian aid that is launched Link from the air by the United States and other allies. But this desperate situation also brings with it tragic results. More than 100 Palestinians have died since February in separate incidents related to food deliveries, including dozens of victims in airdrops.

So, what started as an extreme way of helping the citizens of Link Obtaining food is becoming another risk factor for people’s integrity, especially due to the failures that occur when launching planes.

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On March 2nd, U.S began parachuting emergency humanitarian aid to Link by order of the president Joe Bidensomething that many were already doing Arab countries since February due to the Israeli land blockade of food in trucks at the border with Egypt.

On their first mission, three U.S. Central Air Force C-130 cargo planes dropped 66 packages containing about 38,000 meals, reported the AP agency. Almost a month later, dozens of missions have already been carried out.

This photograph taken from Israel’s southern border with the Gaza Strip shows a military plane parachuting humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory on March 27, 2024. (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP). (JACK GUEZ/)

Palestinians running towards parachutes attached to food packages dropped from US planes on a beach in the Gaza Strip on March 2, 2024. (AFP photo). (-/)

The decision to Biden came after at least 115 Palestinians were killed and more than 750 injured by Israeli gunfire as they tried to get help from a train in the north of Link.

But the air operation, in addition to being a minimal palliative for what the population needs, brings dangers to the people. On some occasions, planes missed their target and pallets of food fell into the sea.. Many desperate Palestinians entered the water without knowing how to swim and died trying to get a package.

Humanitarian aid is launched in the Gaza Strip, west of Gaza City, on March 25, 2024. (AFP Photo). (-/)

Other heavy packages to which their parachute didn’t open They fell with such force that they ended up crushing and killing several people waiting on the ground.

There have also been cases where crowds and disputes have caused deaths from suffocation.

On Monday last week, 18 people trying to recover supplies died in the attempt, both in the Mediterranean Sea and on land..

That day, the sea was rough and many of the inhabitants who entered it did not know how to swim, witnesses told the AFP agency. “When the parachutes fell into the water, they jumped there and some didn’t come back,” said Uday Nasar about what happened on the beach in Al Sudannorth of the city of Link.

In total, twelve people drowned.

Another six people died on the same Monday in stampedes related to the arrival of this aid by airaccording to Gaza authorities.

On March 8, five people died and ten were injured in the refugee camp of Al-Shatiwhen being hit by packages whose parachutes did not open, witnesses and hospital sources told AFP.

Food crisis in Gaza provinces. (AFP).

In this situation, Hamas authorities called on Tuesday for the “immediate cessation” of food shipments by air and the opening of land access.

“We warn countries that carry out these operations about the danger, because part falls into the sea“, another in the Palestinian territories and another in dangerous areas, putting the lives of starving civilians at risk,” said the press office of the government of Hamas.

Although, United States responded that it will continue to launch aid from the air while “working to increase the arrival of assistance on the ground.”

“Airdrops are one of the many ways we deliver aid to Palestinians in Link they so desperately need it and we will continue to do so,” the White House said Tuesday.

Furthermore, Washington recalled that it is working on the construction of a pier in Link to deliver food by sea.

The temporary port that the United States is building in Gaza. (AFP).

For your part, The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday ordered Israel to ensure without delay the delivery of “urgent humanitarian aid” to Linkwhich has been at war for almost six months between Israeli forces and Hamas.

The court issued two new precautionary measures in a case initiated by South Africa that accuses Israel of acts of genocide committed in the military campaign. Israel denies committing genocide and has accused South Africa of trying to “undermine Israel’s inherent right and obligation to defend its citizens”.

Children sit with empty pots as displaced Palestinians line up to receive food provided by a charity in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, March 16, 2024. (Photo by SAID KHATIB/AFP). (Said Khatib/)

According to the UN, Before the war that began on October 7 last year, at least 500 trucks a day with food and other supplies entered Gaza.compared to 150 or less today.

Even before the war, and due to the Israeli blockade, 80% of the population of the Palestinian enclave depended on aid from the United Nations to satisfy your basic dietary needs. Today the situation is catastrophic.

The little food that enters from the south of Gaza, on the border with Egyptnormally does not reach the north, where around 300 thousand people remain, most of them on the coast. hunger.

The path of humanitarian aid in Gaza. (AFP).

Precisely the food droplets from the air have priority north of Gaza.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (THE TEA), only 3% of the aid that entered Palestinian territory between March 18 and 24 reached the north.

“The situation is so desperate that any help is welcome, as long as it arrives safely,” UNICEF spokesman James Elder said Tuesday from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

“Parachute drops are an easy temporary measure. But not the solution,” said Shira Efron, a researcher at the American think tank Israel Policy Forum, according to AFP.

Although an international NGO present in Gaza told AFP that air aid is “a means of indirect pressure on Israel and advertising for the countries that manufacture them, especially for the United States, knowing that It’s useless or almost”.

This photograph taken from Israel’s southern border with the Gaza Strip shows humanitarian aid parachutes landing in the besieged Palestinian territory on March 26, 2024. (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP). (JACK GUEZ/)

The CNN network collected testimonies from those who had difficulty grabbing one of the packages that fell from the air in the north of Link. “I was lucky and got one of those help, but what about all these other people who didn’t get that help?” said a Palestinian.

CNN explained in a report that Nowhere are people more desperate for food aid than in northern Gazawhere women and children stand in long lines to get what is now considered food: a cloudy soup mixture made with dirty water and whatever grains can be found.

“There is no food or drinking water, no flour or anything. There is no oil for cooking. Death is better than this.” Palestinian Amal Mohammad Naseer told CNN.

Source: Elcomercio