US makes second Gaza aid airdrop, in joint operation with Jordan and Egypt
Over 36,000 meals dropped in northern Gaza, ‘an area of great need,’ US military announces; Biden says US pulling out every stop for more humanitarian assistance in enclave
The United States military, in coordination with Jordan, Egypt and France, airdropped more than 36,000 meals into northern Gaza on Tuesday — the second such delivery of aid that Washington has led since Saturday, when the US dropped some 38,000 meals in the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
Airdrops by the US and other countries are aimed at supplementing what officials say is an insufficient supply of aid being brought in by ground to Gaza, where the United Nations and associated aid agencies have warned that famine is “almost inevitable.”
“US Central Command and the Royal Jordanian Air Force conducted a combined humanitarian assistance airdrop into Northern Gaza on March 5, 2024, at 2:30 p.m. (Gaza time) to provide essential relief to civilians affected by the ongoing conflict,” the military command said in a statement Tuesday.
After Saturday’s airdrop focused on southern Gaza, Tuesday’s airdrop targeted northern Gaza, which has been largely cut off from humanitarian assistance as Israel seeks to prevent a resurgence of Hamas activity in areas that were once strongholds for the terror group.
“US C-130s dropped over 36,800 US and Jordanian meal equivalents in northern Gaza, an area of great need, allowing for civilian access to the critical aid,” CENTCOM said, adding that “we continue planning for follow-on aid delivery missions.”
The US has been working to get aid into Gaza through as many channels as possible, the State Department said Monday, describing the situation as “simply intolerable.”
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a daily briefing with reporters that Washington was “optimistic” about the potential of a maritime aid corridor to Gaza that it has been working on and US military’s airdrops were also set to continue. “Our goal is clear, to establish a comprehensive aid strategy that includes air, land and sea routes to maximize the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and ensure that aid is distributed to everyone in Gaza who needs it,” Miller said.
Channel 13 reported Monday evening that humanitarian aid will enter Gaza from the sea in the coming days, for the first time since war’s outbreak following approval from Israel.
The United Arab Emirates will finance the aid shipment from Cyprus where the aid will be subject to inspection by Israeli officials before it sails off to the Gaza coast.
The goal is for the shipment to arrive in Gaza before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins around March 10, according to Channel 13, which citing anonymous Israeli officials.
The idea for a marine humanitarian corridor has been floated for years but never got off the ground due to Israeli reticence and concerns that the port in Gaza isn’t equipped to accept aid en masse.
The US made a renewed push for a marine humanitarian corridor to be established following last week’s deadly mass-casualty incident where dozens of Palestinians were killed trying to collect aid in northern Gaza, which has been largely cut off from humanitarian assistance.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said during a Monday press briefing, “We’re exploring other channels to get aid into Gaza, including a maritime route. To that end, we’re looking at both military and commercial options to move assistance by sea.”
“There’s still an awful lot of work that’s being done on this to flesh it out. We’re also going to continue to urge Israel to facilitate more trucks and more routes opening up more crossings so that more aid can get in to people in need and [for the] flor to be increased,” he adds.
“The maritime route can move more volume at sea, but it also is going to require a heavier logistics lift and some infrastructure… and is very much going to need the support of allies and partners,” he adds.
Israel has also said it is prepared to let in more aid to Gaza through the two checkpoints on the southern edge of the territory it has permitted to open, and has pointed the finger at the UN and other aid agencies for failing to distribute it more widely.
Israel, which checks all trucks entering Gaza from both crossings, has blamed the UN for not delivering the aid fast enough after they are cleared, and for leading to a general fall-off in deliveries over the past month.
The UN has said it is becoming more difficult to distribute aid inside the enclave amid a breakdown of civil administration and law and order. The flow of aid from Egypt has almost dried up in the past two weeks, and a collapse in security has made it increasingly difficult to distribute the food that does get through, according to UN data and officials.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza drew renewed international attention last week’s deadly stampede in Gaza City.
Hamas claims at least 115 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more wounded on Thursday as they swarmed aid trucks that entered the city.
The terror group accused Israeli troops of shooting at the crowd of thousands, while the IDF says many of the casualties were trampled in a chaotic crush for the food aid, and that its troops only fired at a few individuals who rushed toward them in a threatening manner.
The IDF has promised a thorough investigation of the incident.
The delivery of aid to Gaza has been a point of contention in the devastating five-month war, triggered by the unprecedented shock Hamas attack on October 7, when thousands of terrorists rampaged through southern Israeli communities, killing some 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages.
The US has consistently pressured Israel to increase the delivery of aid since the war started, following the October 7 massacre.
Before the war with Hamas, Gaza relied on 500 trucks with supplies entering daily.
An Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Tuesday that Israel has begun testing bringing in aid through the border between Israel and northern Gaza. Until now, all aid has been checked at Kerem Shalom, at Gaza’s southern end, then sent in through the crossing there or through the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing.
Getting trucks safely into the northern Gaza Strip is a priority for Israel, the official explained, and though the number of trucks entering the Strip from the south reached new highs this week, almost all have been cleaned out before they make it to the north.
The UN has said a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million people face starvation. Aid officials have said that airdrops are not an efficient means of distributing aid and are a measure of last resort.
