The international aid dropped by parachute became a controversial means of alleviating the humanitarian catastrophe in Gazasubjected to a ground siege by Israel in its war against Hamas, after the death of 18 Palestinians who were trying of pick up packages.
Hamas authorities called on Tuesday to “immediately cease” these shipments and open land access after announcing the deaths, twelve of them of people who were trying to recover supplies. that fell in the Mediterranean.
When the parachutes hit the water, they launched themselves there and some did not return
The sea was rough and the inhabitants who entered it did not know how to swim, witnesses said. “When the parachutes fell into the water, they jumped there and some did not return,” Uday Nasar told AFP, returning the next day to the same Al Sudania beach, north of Gaza City, to try his luck again. .
Six more people died on Monday in stampedes related to the arrival of this aid, according to authorities.
On March 8, five people were killed and ten injured in the Al Shati refugee camp, hit by packages whose parachutes did not open, witnesses and hospital sources said.
“We warn the countries that carry out these operations of the danger, because some falls into the sea, another in the Palestinian territories and another in dangerous areas, endangering the lives of hungry civilians,” highlighted the press office of the government of Hamas.
“The primary concern is the safety of the recipients,” Jeremy Anderson, a lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force, recently explained to AFP during a mission.
“We make sure that if the parachute doesn't open, it ends up in the sea and doesn't hurt anyone,” he said.
You have to use the roads
Israel declared war on Hamas in retaliation for the incursion of Islamist militants that on October 7 killed some 1,160 people in the south of the country, mostly civilians.according to an AFP count based on official figures.
The Israeli military campaign in Gaza, under Israeli blockade, has so far caused nearly 32,500 deaths, according to the latest balance sheet from the Ministry of Health of the Hamas government in Gaza.
The parachute packages, carried by Jordanian, Egyptian, French or American planes, are marked with small flags of the donors: the United Arab Emirates, France, Belgium, Germany or the United States.
The recipients are the 300,000 people who remain in northern Gaza, where trucks entering from the south rarely arrive.
The Israeli government agency Cogat recorded 44 airdrops. A method that, it is estimated, does not compensate in any way for what would be a normal road flow.
“The situation is so desperate that any help is welcome, as long as it arrives safely,” UNICEF spokesman James Elder stressed on Tuesday from Rafah, in the south of the Strip.
“Food aid is usually launched when people are isolated, hundreds of kilometers from everything. Here, the help that is needed is just a few kilometers away. You have to use the roads!” he added.
Calls for Israel to open road crossings and ease restrictions are multiplying.
According to the UN, before the war at least 500 trucks a day entered Gaza, compared to 150 today.
“The (parachute) drops are an easy temporary measure. But they are not the solution,” says Shira Efron, a researcher at the American think tank Israel Policy Forum.
For her, “they are a means for countries to show that they are doing something.”
“They are a means of indirect pressure on Israel and of publicity for the countries that make them, especially for the United States, knowing that they are of little or no use,” confirms an international NGO present in Gaza.
Washington stressed on Tuesday its intention to continue carrying them out, while “working to increase the arrival of assistance by land.”
According to the US military, a ship – which left Virginia – is on its way to install a floating dock in Gaza.
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