US JOINS JORDAN IN DROPPING SUPPLIES INTO GAZA
▶ Air force planes drop thousands of meals into coastal enclave as White House announces further operations to deliver humanitarian relief by air, land and sea
Jordan is working on delivering more humanitarian supplies to Gaza to prevent its population from starving, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said yesterday after the kingdom took part in the first US operation to drop aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave.
The US and Jordanian air forces dropped 38,000 meals on Saturday after US President Joe Biden declared his intention to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
“We are facing today the biggest challenge in our region, which is the continuation of the savage Israeli aggression against Gaza,” Mr Safadi told a meeting of the Gulf Co-operation Council in Riyadh.
Jordan “is working to stop this aggression and to deliver enough aid for more than 2.3 million Palestinians facing starvation”, he said.
However, Mr Safadi added, “Israel is still preventing the arrival of enough aid”.
More than 30,400 Palestinians have been killed since the outbreak of war, the Gaza Health Ministry says, while most of Gaza’s population has been displaced by the fighting.
The war started on October 7, when Hamas and other militant groups from Gaza attacked southern Israeli communities, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages.
Israel still has Washington’s support for its operation in Gaza, although the White House has been increasingly critical of its conduct in the war.
The US military announced that three aircraft had dropped supplies “along the coastline of Gaza” on Saturday, and that further deliveries are planned.
The White House said the operations were “part of a sustained effort” to deliver aid, but not a substitute for ground transport.
“This isn’t going to be one and done, there will be additional air drops planned and executed,” White House spokesman John Kirby said on Saturday.
“We’re also going to redouble our efforts to open up a humanitarian maritime corridor for the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.”
Saturday’s operation involved US Air Force and Royal Jordanian Air Force C-130 planes, and was carried out by soldiers specialised in the aerial delivery of supplies. Pallets loaded with food supplies were dropped using parachutes.
Mr Biden announced on Friday that the US would begin taking part in aerial delivery of aid to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Jordan has been conducting these flights since November last year, and has flown aid into the enclave 17 times.
Other countries, such as France, the Netherlands, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt and the UAE, have also taken part in the initiative. Last week, Canadian International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen said Ottawa was considering joining the operations.
The dire humanitarian situation in Gaza has led to the deaths of at least 13 children from malnutrition and dehydration, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
As talks continue in the hope of securing a truce, and aid delivery methods undergo continuous evaluation, global powers remain focused on mitigating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza while seeking a path towards a resolution.
Last week, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Israeli troops had opened fire near a food convoy, killing 118 people and injuring at least 760. The incident drew international condemnation and calls for an independent inquiry.
On Saturday, the Israeli military promised an investigation into the incident.
Israel denied its troops had shot into the crowd, and said most victims had been trampled or run over as crowds swarmed aid lorries.
An Israeli official also said troops had “in a limited response” later fired at people they felt had posed a threat.
“We have all the documentation that we need in order to carry out an exhaustive, truthful investigation into the facts of this incident and we will present our findings,” Israeli military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said.
“It was a humanitarian operation we were running, and the claim that we deliberately attacked the convoy and deliberately harmed people is completely baseless,” he said, adding that it had been the fourth such aid operation in that area.
This isn’t going to be one and done, there will be additional air drops planned and executed
JOHN KIRBY
White House spokesman