Struggling for a can of food: Starving Gazans jostle for aid
The aid entering the Gaza Strip by land is far below pre-war levels, at around 150 vehicles a day compared to at least 500 before the war, according to UNRWA.
With Gazans increasingly desperate, foreign governments have turned to airdrops, in particular in the hard-to-reach northern parts of the territory including Gaza City.
People are dying just to get a can of tuna. The situation is tragic, as if we are in a famine. What can we do? They mock us by giving us a small can of tuna.” Mohamad Al Sabaawi, carrying an almost empty bag on his shoulder
We are the people of Gaza, waiting for aid drops, willing to die to get a can of beans —which we then share among 18 people.” A Palestinian man
On the ground, where almost no building within sight was still standing, hungry men and boys raced towards the beach where most of the aid seemed to have landed.
Dozens of them jostled intensely to get to the food, with scrums forming up and down the rubblestrewn dunes.
"People are dying just to get a can of tuna," said Mohamad al-Sabaawi, carrying an almost empty bag on his shoulder, a young boy beside him.
"The situation is tragic, as if we are in a famine. What can we do? They mock us by giving us a small can of tuna." Aid groups say only a fraction of the supplies required to meet basic humanitarian needs have arrived in Gaza since October, while the UN has warned of famine in the north of the territory by May without urgent intervention.
The aid entering the Gaza Strip by land is far below pre-war levels, at around 150 vehicles a day compared to at least 500 before the war, according to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. With Gazans increasingly desperate, foreign governments have turned to airdrops, in particular in the hard-to-reach northern parts of the territory including Gaza City.
The United States, France and Jordan are among several countries conducting airdrops to people living within the ruins of what was the besieged territory's biggest city. But the aircrews themselves told AFP that the drops were insufficient.
US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Anderson noted earlier this month that what they were able to deliver was only a "drop in the bucket" of what was needed.
The air operation has also been marred by deaths. Five people on the ground were killed by one drop and 10 others injured after parachutes malfunctioned, according to a medic in Gaza.
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday it was a moral and strategic imperative to protect Palestinian civilians in the war between Israel and Hamas and that the humanitarian catastrophe in besieged Gaza was getting worse. Austin was speaking at the start of a meeting with Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the Pentagon as relations between U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sank to a wartime low.
“In Gaza today, the number of civilian casualties is far too high and the amount of humanitarian aid is far too low,” Austin said.
“Gaza is suffering a humanitarian catastrophe and the situation is getting even worse,” Austin said, using more forceful language than he has in the past on the crisis.
He added that he and Gallant would discuss how to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Their meeting takes place after Netanyahu on Monday canceled a separate visit to Washington by two of his most senior aides who were due to hear US ideas about operational alternatives. Netanyahu's fraught relations with Biden broke down over Washington's decision not to veto a UN Security Council resolution seeking an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The United States has been working to get Netanyahu to consider alternatives to a ground invasion of Rafah, the last relatively safe haven for Palestinian civilians. Austin said he would discuss alternate approaches to targeting Hamas in Rafah. The threat of such an offensive has increased differences s between close allies the United States and Israel, and raised questions about whether the US might restrict military aid if Netanyahu defies Biden and presses ahead anyway.