(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Five people, including two children, died on March 8, 2024, when they were crushed by an airdropped aid package that didn’t properly deploy over northern Gaza.
The New York Post reported that the package fell on three adults and two little boys inside the Al-Shati refugee camp around 11:30 a.m. when its parachute failed to deploy, according to the officials from the Health Ministry that is currently run by a terrorist organization Hamas and an eyewitness.
In addition to that, the news source reported that 11 other people between the ages of 30 and 50 were injured by the botched drop.
According to the video, several aid packages were dropped from the sky. However, one of the packages was descending faster than the others because its parachute didn’t fully open.
It was reported that among the countries that dropped aid packages over Gaza on that day to help residents within the embattled region were the United States, Jordan, Egypt, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
One of the government officials told the Post that the U.S. aid packages were not involved in the fatalities and the incident is still under investigation, adding that the American packages contained non-pork and halal military rations.
International aid agencies criticized airdropped aid packages for not being sufficient, adding that they should only be used as a “last resort.” The United Nations warned on March 7, 2024, that more than half a million Gazans are “on the brink of famine,” according to Martin Griffiths, head of its Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Another UN official also criticized the packages by calling them a “temporary Band-Aid.”
“Humanitarian workers always complain that airdrops are good photo opportunities but a lousy way to deliver aid,” Richard Gowan, director of its International Crisis Group, said last week.
One of the American officials said that they are aware the aid packages are not enough to lessen the humanitarian crisis, but that they affirm the world aims to help Gazans.
