The U.S. military delivered its first round of aid to the Gaza Strip by dropping 66 pallets of food by plane to the beach.
Why do they have to do it this way? Because they cannot guarantee the safety of truck deliveries. Last week at least 100 Palestinians died and hundreds were injured from from attacks at an aid center. The attacks are reported to have come from the Israeli military. Israel refutes that and says that the deaths were caused by a stampede. They released this video to support that assertion.
The Biden administration says that this aid is meant to “alleviate the suffering of innocent Palestinians who have nothing to do with Hamas” but it is not related to what the Israeli military is doing. That makes no sense. The aid would not be necessary if Israel would agree to a ceasefire, which they will not. Israel is reportedly boycotting ceasefire talks after Hamas refused to release a list of hostages that are still alive.
The international charity Oxfam has criticized the aid drops by air. They claim that the airdrops “mostly serve to relieve the guilty consciences of senior US officials whose policies are contributing to the ongoing atrocities and risk of famine in Gaza” and called for the US to end military aid to Israel. Scott Paul, the head of Oxfam’s U.S. government advocacy, said that “dropping a paltry, symbolic amount of aid into Gaza with no plan for its safe distribution would not help and be deeply degrading to Palestinians.”
