- BREAKING NEWS More to follow
- The aid parcels were dropped into the sea and people drowned as they swam out
- Hamas has called for an immediate end to airdrops and to open land crossings
Hamas called for an end to aid airdrops into Gaza Tuesday after it said 12 people drowned and six were killed in stampedes trying to reach the food packages.
The deaths happened in the starving north of the besieged territory on Monday, with people rushing to collect packages dropped from planes along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast.
Hamas said: ‘We call for an immediate end to airdrop operation and we demand the immediate and rapid opening of land crossings to allow humanitarian aid to reach our Palestinian people.’
The bombardment of Gaza by the IDF has seen a severe lack of aid reaching the area.
There have been numerous instances of mass shootings of Palestinians waiting for aid to be delivered by road by the IDF.
The desperation amongst starving Palestinians has led to them risking their lives to collect the food parcels that are arriving, but this is dangerous as they are being dropped from planes on the coast.
12 people have drowned and six were killed in stampedes trying to reach the food packages
Palestinians gather on a beach as they collect aid airdropped by an airplane, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip
Airdrops need a large landing space for it to be as safe as possible
Humanitarian agencies advise that airdrops should ideally be large, open areas no smaller than a football field.
This is why deliveries have often been aimed at Gaza’s coastline.
However, this has sometimes resulted in aid falling into the sea or being carried by the wind into Israel, according to local accounts.
Aid groups say only a fraction of the supplies required to meet basic humanitarian needs have arrived in Gaza since October.
The UN is warning of famine.
The aid entering the Gaza Strip by land is far below pre-war levels, at around 150 vehicles a day compared to at least 500 before the war, according to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
It is far more dangerous having to swim out to collect aid than to receive it by road
As of the beginning of March, The US had airdropped 36,000 meals into northern Gaza in co-ordination with Jordan.
These deaths bring the Palestinian death toll up to 32,531 since the war broke out in October.
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