The US plans to drop aid to Gaza as land deliveries are virtually impossible
War between Israel and Hamas: The US is considering sending medical and other air aid to Gaza as land deliveries become increasingly difficult.
Washington DC: Amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, which is escalating every day, the White House is considering dropping aid from its military planes to Gaza as land deliveries in the region are very difficult, Reuters reported citing a US official. The news site Axios, which first reported the news, said such a move would be ineffective and that large amounts of aid could only be delivered by land. “The situation is really bad. We are unable to get enough help [in] by truck, so we need desperate measures like air drops,” Reuters quoted a US official as saying.
The Israeli army (IDF) has razed almost all densely populated enclaves and displaced the entire population. The residents of Gaza are on the brink of famine and are not even provided with drinking water. Strikingly, the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza has halved this month compared to last month, UN data shows.
War between Israel and Hamas: food shortage in Gaza
As many as 5,76,000 people living in the Gaza Strip, which is a quarter of the population, face extreme food shortages, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. The UN agency said on Tuesday that humanitarian aid groups faced “overwhelming obstacles just to get a bare minimum of supplies into Gaza.”
Every six children under the age of two suffer from acute malnutrition in northern Gaza. People in the Palestinian enclave have been forced to rely on “woefully inadequate” food aid to survive.
Israel-Hamas War: UN official blamed Israel
During an interview with The Guardian newspaper, a UN expert on the right to food, Michael Fakhri said that Israel is deliberately depriving people in Gaza of food, saying this is “clearly a war crime.”
Israeli Deputy Ambassador to the United States Jonathan Miller said his country is committed to improving the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and that the pace of humanitarian assistance depends on the capacity of all agencies, including the UN.
Axios, the first to report that the US is considering airdrops, quoted US officials stating that such actions would have a limited impact since a military aircraft can only drop an amount of supplies equal to the amount delivered by one or two trucks are transported.