Authorities in Gaza say accident involving airdrop of aid killed

U.N. officials, aid groups and experts on humanitarian crises have said the airdrops are insufficient and largely symbolic given the dire needs of Gaza’s two million residents still trapped in a war zone. They have urged Israel to open more border crossings and speed up inspections of aid shipments.

Airdrops can deliver only a fraction of the food that a convoy of trucks can transport, and it’s difficult if not impossible to control who takes possession of the goods once they reach the ground, these experts say.

But the dangers of defective parachutes and falling pallets of food, water and other aid also pose a major risk in airborne operations. In its statement, the government news agency cited the deaths as arguing that Israel should open more border crossings to allow in more truckloads of aid.

Saleh Eid, a 60-year-old translator, said in a telephone interview on Friday that he had previously seen packages dropped in northern Gaza fall “very quickly” when their parachutes failed to open, posing a risk to people’s lives.

Mr Eid, who lives in the town of Jabaliya just north of Gaza City, said many of these packages have fallen into the sea. Others have landed in open areas near the border with Israel, and people have risked being shot by Israeli forces to retrieve them, he said.

Mr Eid said much of the air-dropped food ends up being sold on the black market rather than being distributed to the hungriest.

On Sunday, he said, he bought three bags of food at a market dropped by the United States. He gave the food to his wife, who is breastfeeding their two-week-old baby, hoping she would be able to eat well enough to produce milk.

Each of the bags, he said, cost him 30 shekels, or about $8 dollars, and contained a small meal and some cookies, jelly, peanut butter, a chocolate bar, a juice box, instant coffee and gum.

Arijeta Lajka reporting contributed.