Gaza Strip: US Carries Out First Airdrop of Humanitarian Aid

The USA has carried out its first airdrop of humanitarian aid for Gaza Strip, with more than 30,000 meals parachuted in by three military planes.

The operation, carried out jointly with Jordan’s air force, was the first of many announced by President Joe Biden.

President Biden promised to step up aid after at least 112 people were killed as crowds rushed a convoy on February 29.

The airdrop comes as a top US official said the framework of a deal for a six-week ceasefire in Gaza was in place.

On March 2, C-130 transport planes dropped more than 38,000 meals along the coastline of the territory, US Central Command said in a statement.

“These airdrops are part of a sustained effort to get more aid into Gaza, including by expanding the flow of aid through land corridors and routes,” it added.

Other countries including the UK, France, Egypt and Jordan have previously airdropped aid into Gaza, but this is the first by the US.

Vice-President Kamala Harris will meet Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz in Washington on March 4 to discuss a truce and other issues, Reuters quotes a White House official as saying.

Image source: AFP

In February 29 incident, 112 people were killed and more than 760 injured as they crowded around aid lorries on the south-western edge of Gaza City.

Hamas accused Israel of firing at civilians, but Israel said most died in a crush after it fired warning shots.

Hamas meanwhile said an Israeli bombardment had killed at least 11 people at a camp in Rafah in southern Gaza on March 2.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the attack “outrageous”. The Israeli army said it had carried out a “precision strike” against Islamic Jihad militants in the area.

The UN’s World Food Programme has warned that a famine is imminent in northern Gaza, which has received very little aid in recent weeks, and where an estimated 300,000 people are living with little food or clean water.

The Israel military launched a large-scale air and ground campaign to destroy Hamas after its gunmen killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7 and took 253 back to Gaza as hostages.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says more than 30,000 people, including 21,000 children and women, have been killed in Gaza since then with some 7,000 missing and at least 70,450 injured.