War tragedy between Israel and Hamas: 5 people are crushed to death, several are injured when the parachute does not open during the aid drop in Gaza

Tel Aviv: In a tragic incident, five people were killed and several others injured after a humanitarian airdrop’s parachute failed to open and a pallet crashed into people queuing for food north of Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp on Friday. Al Jazeera reported. The Gaza government’s media office denounced the “useless” airborne landings as “flashy propaganda instead of humanitarian services” and advocated the availability of food to cross land borders. “We have previously warned that it threatens the lives of civilians in the Gaza Strip and this is what happened today when the parcels fell on the heads of civilians,” the report said in a statement.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported last month that at least half a million people, or one in four people in Gaza, feared famine.

The killings took place when the enclave was ravaged by a famine. It drew attention to the difficulty of delivering much-needed humanitarian aid to Gaza despite Israeli restrictions. The main UN agency in Gaza, UNRWA, claims that Israeli authorities have banned them from transporting goods to the northern part of the Gaza Strip since January 23, Al Jazeera reported.

The World Food Program said the military forced its first northbound convoy in two weeks to turn back on Tuesday.

The organization had suspended deliveries in Gaza due to security concerns. As a result, several countries have conducted airdrops, most notably Egypt, the United States, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.

However, aid groups have criticized these efforts as expensive and inefficient ways to provide food and medical supplies.

Meanwhile, the UN says widespread famine in the Gaza Strip is “almost inevitable” if nothing is done.

Aid agencies attribute the scarcity of food in the enclave – which has been under siege and attack by Israel since October 7 – to military activities, insecurity and significant obstacles to the transport of necessary supplies, Al Jazeera said.

Gaza health officials reported that more than 30,000 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed during the five-month conflict.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is preparing to launch historic hearings on the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation of Palestinian territories. The proceedings, scheduled for a week in The Hague, coincide with Israel’s ongoing military offensive in Gaza, resulting in the deaths of more than 29,000 Palestinians since October 7, Al Jazeera reported.

Unlike the genocide complaint filed by South Africa against Israel for alleged violations in the current conflict, the ICJ hearings focus on Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem since 1967.

The Palestinians, who seek these areas for an independent state, claim the occupation violates three fundamental principles of international law, as reported by Al Jazeera.

Israel strongly denies that it committed genocide in Gaza. However, the International Court of Justice ruled in January that it had jurisdiction to hear South Africa’s case against Israel, accusing the latter of violating the Genocide Convention.

The court ordered Israel to do everything possible to prevent death, destruction and genocide in Gaza, but the panel of judges did not order an end to the military offensive that has devastated the Palestinian enclave.