2024-03-13 13:43:33
Video footage from an American aid plane shows the extent of the devastation in Gaza
As a US Air Force C-130 plane flew over the Gaza Strip to drop food on residents facing the specter of starvation, there were few signs of life amid the ruins of what was once a bustling urban area before the war between Israel and Hamas.
The plane descended to a level of 3,000 feet above the Mediterranean Sea and north of Gaza. The crew began dropping 10 large packages of packed aid into Jordan with parachutes from the plane, according to Reuters news agency.
Thick smoke rising from an explosion on the border between Israel and Gaza as seen from Sderot (dpa)
Footage of Gaza from the plane revealed many buildings that had been leveled, while others had partially collapsed or been completely turned into charred rubble due to the Israeli campaign that began following a surprise attack launched by Hamas on October 7. Columns of smoke rose from the rubble.
A Palestinian man carries his belongings as he walks through the rubble of a destroyed residential building in Khan Yunis (Reuters)
The US military said it dropped more than 27,000 meals and nearly 26,000 bottles of water yesterday, Tuesday, in northern Gaza, where relief organizations say the need is more severe there than in any other area in the Strip.
This aid meets only a small portion of the urgent needs of about 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where the United Nations says at least 576,000 people are on the brink of famine.
A Palestinian woman cries after her apartment was destroyed in an Israeli raid in Hamad Town in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip (Reuters)
The amount of supplies dropped is less than the first air drop carried out by Washington on March 3, which included 38,000 meals, bringing the total amount of aid dropped from the air by the US Army, in cooperation with Western and Arab countries this month, to one million pounds.
Aid organizations say airdrops are much less effective than truck deliveries, and it is almost impossible to ensure that airdropped supplies are distributed to those who need them most.
Destroyed buildings in Khan Yunis (Reuters)
“As we all know, there is an urgent need for food and other emergency aid arriving in Gaza,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said on Tuesday. “There is no doubt about that.”
He added, “It is important for us to stress again and again – and I am sorry if I repeat tediously – that this is not a substitute for land transportation of food and other emergency aid to Gaza, especially northern Gaza. “You cannot replace him.”
Relief agencies and governments are seeking to increase the flow of food and other vital supplies into Gaza by land and sea because airdrops are expensive and have limited capacity.
The White House is pressuring Israel to allow more aid to enter by land. Israel denies imposing restrictions on humanitarian aid and says the United Nations’ mismanagement of distribution operations is the reason.
Before the war began in October, the Gaza Strip relied on 500 trucks entering daily. Aid can currently be delivered by land only from southern Gaza via the Rafah crossing with Egypt and the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel.
A Palestinian man examines a pool of blood in a United Nations warehouse in Rafah (AFP)
Gaza health authorities say more than 31,000 people have been killed. A United Nations analysis of satellite images concluded that 30 percent of buildings were completely or partially destroyed in the Palestinian enclave, which has a population of 2.3 million people, in addition to many roads being bulldozed and rendered unusable.
The war began after Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7. Israel says the attack killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages. Israel responded with an air and ground attack.
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