Aid drops are causing death by stampede, claims Hamas
HAMAS has asked the West to stop air-dropping supplies into Gaza because deliveries are resulting in the deaths of civilians in stampedes.
Parachutes with food parcels were dropped on the hunger-stricken north of Gaza yesterday morning, with crowds rushing towards them.
At least six people were killed in a stampede and 12 more drowned as they tried to retrieve the parcels from the sea, according to Hamas officials. In a statement yesterday, the terror group urged the West to put “an immediate end to air-drop operations” and to instead press Israel to open more land crossings into Gaza to bring in the aid.
The Royal Air Force on Monday launched its first air drop over Gaza, joining the United States, Jordan and others. UNICEF, the UN children’s fund, urged the international community to press Israel into letting more supplies into Gaza by road, rather than air, to avert “imminent famine”.
Food aid is usually only airdropped in crises where “people are cut off for hundreds of kilometres”, said James Elder, a UNICEF spokesman, speaking via video link from Gaza. But “the lifesaving aid they need is a matter of kilometres away”, he added, as trucks loaded with aid have been waiting across Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. “We need to use the road networks.”
The US said it will continue dropping essential aid from the air into Gaza, despite the call by Hamas. In a statement, the National Security Council said: “Air drops are one of the many ways that we are helping to provide desperately needed aid to Palestinians in Gaza, and we will continue to do so.”