12 Gaza residents drown while trying to access aid airdrops

Twelve people drowned while trying to deliver aid dropped by planes from Gaza beaches, Palestinian health authorities said on Tuesday. Fears of famine growing Israel’s military operation has been ongoing for nearly six months.

Airdrop video obtained by Reuters showed crowds of people running towards the beach in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, crates containing parachutes floating down, and then people standing in the water’s depths as bodies were dragged onto the sand.

In Washington, the Pentagon said 3 of 18 packages Airdrop of aid to Gaza The parachute malfunctioned and fell into the water on Monday, but it could not be confirmed whether anyone died during the attempted rescue.

It is the latest in a series of deaths during aid deliveries in the crowded Palestinian enclave, where some are foraging for weeds to eat and baking barely edible bread using animal feed.

A piece of paper taken from Monday’s airdrop had a U.S. flag written in Arabic, indicating the aid was coming from the United States.

Video shows the apparently lifeless body of a bearded young man being dragged to the beach, eyes open but motionless, as another man attempts to revive him with chest compressions, with one saying: “Everything It’s all over.”
“He swam to get food for the children and he was martyred,” said an unnamed man standing on the beach.

“They should be delivering aid through (land) border crossings. Why are they doing this to us?”

Aid agencies say only about a fifth of needed supplies are coming in as an ongoing Israeli air and ground offensive triggered by an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas has devastated the Gaza enclave and plunged parts of it into famine. Gaza.

They say sending supplies directly to Hamas-controlled Gaza beaches by air or sea is not a substitute for sending more supplies overland through Israel or Egypt.

aid delivery crisis

UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged Israel to make an “ironclad commitment” to allow unrestricted aid access to the Gaza Strip, describing the number of trucks blocked at the border as a “moral outrage”.

Israel says it has no limits on the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza and blames problems with aid reaching civilians in the enclave on U.N. agencies, which it says are ineffective.

Distributing aid inside Gaza has been complicated, especially in the north, where last month Gaza health authorities said Israeli forces killed more than 100 people trying to get aid from a convoy.

The Israeli military disputed that account, saying those who stormed the convoy were crushed to death by crowds or rescue trucks.

UNRWA has banned UNRWA from sending aid to the north, the agency’s head said on Sunday. UNRWA, the main U.N. agency working in Gaza, has been accused of conspiring with Hamas.

UNRWA denies complicity with Hamas and is awaiting the outcome of an investigation into its handling of allegations that have led some donors to suspend funding.

The U.N. humanitarian office on Tuesday urged Israel to lift an apparent ban on UNRWA food aid to northern Gaza, saying people there were facing “cruel deaths from famine.”

UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma said the reported drownings showed that the best way to deliver aid was by using trucks operated by aid agencies.

Touma said: “These tragic reports from Gaza once again demonstrate that the most effective, fastest and safest way to reach people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance is by road and on the ground by humanitarian organizations, including UNRWA. Work.”