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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/8/aid-airdrop-kills-five-gaza-israel-war-hunger-famine">aljazeera.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Aid airdrop kills five people in Gaza after parachute fails</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Al Jazeera</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">March 8, 2024<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p><em>As famine stalks enclave, aid workarounds criticised as a distraction from Israel’s blocking of aid through land routes.</em></p></div><div><p>Five
people were killed and several injured after a parachute landing a
humanitarian airdrop failed to open, bringing a pallet crashing down
into a crowd of people waiting for food north of Gaza City’s Shati
refugee camp.</p>
<p>The government media office in Gaza confirmed the casualties after the incident occurred on Friday, lambasting the “useless” <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/2/us-airdrops-food-to-gaza-in-move-criticised-by-aid-organisations">airdrops</a> as “flashy propaganda rather than a humanitarian service” and calling for food to be allowed through land crossings.</p>
<p>“We previously warned it poses a threat to the lives of citizens in
the Gaza Strip and this is what happened today when the parcels fell on
the citizens’ heads,” it said in a statement.</p>
<p>Reporting from Rafah, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said that people are experiencing “a tragedy” in the north of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/tag/gaza/">Gaza</a>.</p>
<p>“Not only are they confronted with the lack of food and medical
supplies, but as they wait for packages of food, they are either
targeted by the Israeli military or killed by a non-functional
parachute,” Mahmoud said.</p>
<p>The deaths occurred as <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/26/no-aid-delivery-in-northern-gaza-since-more-than-a-month-unrwa">famine</a>
stalked the enclave, with the United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reporting last month that at least
half a million, or one in four people in Gaza, face famine.</p>
<p>It highlighted the problem of getting desperately needed humanitarian relief into Gaza amid Israeli restrictions.</p>
<p>UNRWA, the largest UN agency in Gaza, says Israeli authorities have
not allowed it to deliver supplies to the north of the strip since
January 23.</p>
<img src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024-03-05T133707Z_621318490_RC29W5A90YHG_RTRMADP_3_ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-GAZA-AID-1709703104.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C526&quality=80" alt="Palestinian children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen amid shortages of food supplies, as the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Rafah" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" width="450" height="307" style="margin-right: 25px;">Palestinian children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen in Rafah [File: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]
<p>The World Food Programme, which had paused deliveries in Gaza because
of security concerns, said the military forced its first convoy to the
north in two weeks to turn back on Tuesday.</p>
<p>In response, a number of countries – including the United States,
Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt – have conducted airdrops,
which have been criticised by aid agencies as a costly and ineffective
way of delivering food and medical supplies.</p><div aria-label="Newsletter signup Widget" id="gmail-article-newsletter-slot"><p></p><p></p><div><p><span aria-hidden="false"><span>The latest news from around the world.
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<p>On Wednesday, the WFP said that the controversial method should be
considered “a last resort”. By way of contrast, it said that the week’s
airdrops had only delivered six tonnes of food, while a failed 14-truck
convoy would have brought 200 tonnes of food to people.</p>
<p>On Friday, Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s communications director told Al
Jazeera, “There is an easier and cheaper way to bring in much-needed
supplies into the Gaza Strip … That is via the road including sending
more trucks from Israel into the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>“When there is a political will there is a way,” she said, adding
that, so far, desperately needed supplies have not been cleared fast
enough and “there needs to be much more” going into the strip.</p>
<p>Friday’s disaster struck only a day after US President Joe Biden announced a complicated workaround to <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/8/us-port-plan-to-step-up-aid-delivery-to-gaza-criticised-as-distraction">build a temporary pier off Gaza’s coast</a> to
deliver aid, a move criticised as an attempt to divert attention from
the looming famine and Israel’s consistent blocking of assistance to the
enclave.</p>
<p>British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said that the United Kingdom
would be participating in the project, but said it would “take time to
build”.</p>
<p>While welcoming the development, he nevertheless urged Israel to open its own port of Ashdod in the meantime.</p>
<p>“We need to make a difference right now,” he said.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a maritime corridor delivering aid from Cyprus to the
besieged enclave – a collaboration of a number of partners, including
European countries, the US, and the UAE – could be established as soon
as this weekend, according to European Commission President Ursula von
der Leyen.</p>
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