2024-03-03 02:05:52
This content was published on March 2, 2024 – 11:11 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) The United States carried out on Saturday a first operation to drop humanitarian aid on the Gaza Strip, threatened with famine according to the UN after almost five months of war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas which has caused more 30,300 deaths.
The operation comes two days after Israeli soldiers fired on a hungry crowd who rushed on a humanitarian aid convoy in Gaza City, a tragedy which left 116 dead according to the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Faced with the difficulties of transporting humanitarian aid by road, particularly to the north of the besieged territory, several countries have recently parachuted cargoes there, notably Jordan with the support of France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. , as well as Egypt in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates.
“Airdrops cannot and must not replace humanitarian access,” nevertheless warned the NGO International Rescue Committee (IRC).
“We received two bags of flour from the aid that arrived on the day of the massacre in Gaza on Thursday,” said a 28-year-old resident of the Zeitoun neighborhood: “This is not enough. Everyone is hungry. Aid is rare and insufficient”.
38,000 meals
Three American military planes dropped 66 “packages” equivalent to more than 38,000 meals, in a joint operation with Jordan, according to an official from the American Military Command for the Middle East (Centcom).
On Friday, American President Joe Biden announced that his country would participate “in the coming days” in humanitarian aid drops on Gaza.
Cargoes by land, subject to the green light from Israel which has imposed a blockade on Gaza since 2007, only arrive in very limited quantities via Rafah from Egypt.
And their transport, particularly in the north of the territory, is perilous due to fighting, Israeli bombings, rubble blocking roads and sometimes looting.
“We are going to insist that Israel facilitate the entry of more trucks (…) There is really not enough aid arriving in Gaza,” Joe Biden said.
Gunshot wounds
An aid distribution in Gaza City turned tragic on Thursday when several hundred people rushed onto humanitarian aid trucks.
Hamas claims that the Israeli army opened fire on the crowd, while Israel acknowledges “limited shooting” by soldiers who felt “threatened”, ensuring that the majority of those killed were killed in a stampede.
A UN team said it found “a large number” of gunshot wounds in a hospital in the city where many victims had been admitted.
The international community has called for an investigation into this tragedy and an immediate ceasefire in the war triggered by an unprecedented attack carried out on October 7 in southern Israel by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza.
The strikes have left at least 92 dead in the past 24 hours, according to the health ministry of Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007.
Strike at Rafah
At least 11 people were killed “and nearly 50 others injured, including children” in a strike on a tent camp housing displaced people near a hospital in Rafah, the ministry said.
It also reports 13 children dying from “malnutrition and dehydration” in recent days.
The toll of the war in the Gaza Strip continues to rise with a total of 30,320 dead, the majority civilians, according to the same source.
Since October 7, the Israeli army has been relentlessly shelling this strip of land approximately 40 km long and 10 km wide. On October 27, its soldiers launched a ground operation in the north, which gradually extended to the south.
Around 250 people were kidnapped. According to Israel, 130 hostages are still being held in Gaza, 31 of whom are believed to have died, after the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian detainees during a truce at the end of November.
This war has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian territory where 2.2 million of the 2.4 million inhabitants are threatened with famine, according to the UN.
Nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are crowding into Rafah, the vast majority displaced people trapped against the closed border with Egypt, and fear an Israeli ground offensive.
– Biden prudent –
“The responsibilities for blocking aid are clearly Israeli,” said the head of French diplomacy, Stéphane Séjourné, speaking of “indefensible and unjustifiable situations for which the Israelis are accountable”.
“The famine adds to the horror,” he said in an interview published Saturday.
The head of the African Union, Moussa Faki Mahamat, accused Israel of a “massive massacre of Palestinians” during Thursday’s tragedy and called for an international investigation.
The head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell described as “unacceptable” the “shooting by Israeli soldiers on civilians trying to obtain food”, and called for “an impartial international investigation” into this tragedy.
Negotiations
The tragedy in Gaza also dealt a blow to the efforts of mediators – Qatar, United States, Egypt – who are trying to reach a compromise on a truce associated with new releases of hostages.
Mr. Biden wanted to be cautious by repeating on Friday “hope” for a truce by Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for Muslims which begins this year on the evening of March 10 or the 11th.
And a senior American official assured Saturday that an agreement on a truce in the war in Gaza was “on the table” and that now “the ball was in Hamas’ court” for it to come into force.
“The Israelis have more or less accepted it. And a six-week ceasefire could begin today in Gaza if Hamas agrees to release a well-defined category of vulnerable hostages,” the American official said in an interview with the press, specifying that , for the moment, “discussions continued” to seal an agreement before the start of Ramadan, in a week.
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