The United States Army began its aerial aid operation this Saturday to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with the launch of 38,000 food packages distributed on 66 pallets dropped from three C-130 planes that have flown over the enclave at low altitude. as military sources have confirmed to NBC News.
Thus begins the operation authorized this week by the President of the United States, Joe Biden, to try to alleviate the devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza due to the Israeli military operation in response to the militant attacks of October 7.
In recent days, Jordan has launched several aid deliveries through this same system given the enormous difficulty in the entry of humanitarian aid by land due to the fighting and the Israeli blockades on the passes to the enclave.
However, this type of aid has been viewed with considerable skepticism by both international NGOs and prominent diplomatic representatives such as the high representative of the EU Josep Borrell, understanding that it is little more than a token effort that also endangers the safety of desperate Palestinians trying to reach the packages.
“Airdrops do not and cannot replace humanitarian access,” the International Rescue Committee NGO warned on Friday. “The fact that airdrops are even being considered is testament to the serious access challenges in Gaza, where more than half a million people face famine conditions,” she added.
Borrell, for his part, described that this type of operation has a “minimal impact” when it comes to meeting the needs of the population at a time when the authorities of the enclave, to give a tragic example, have already raised the number of children to 13. died from starvation since the beginning of the conflict.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has also criticized this approach with a statement issued this Saturday in which it denounced the apparent unwillingness to use its influence over Israel to allow more humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.
“The United States is behaving like a marginal and weak country, incapable of guaranteeing the entry of aid to the hungry in the Gaza Strip,” he lamented in a statement published on his X social network account.
The Ministry went on to express its “extreme surprise at the weakness exhibited by the United States,” which is adopting “measures inappropriate for a great power that is capable, if it so desired, of forcing Israel to protect Palestinian civilians.”
Even the president of the United States, Joe Biden, acknowledged this past Friday during his announcement of these operations that the enclave “should receive hundreds of aid trucks a day” because “what is arriving right now in Gaza is insufficient, and there are lives in Game”.