US military to air relief aid to Gaza This is what US President Joe Biden said yesterday on Friday. His announcement came just a day after Israeli firing on Palestinians who had gathered to collect aid killed 112 people.
According to the report of the news agency Reuters, several other countries including Jordan, France have sent several rounds of air relief aid to Gaza. This response from the United States came a little late. Biden announced the release of relief aid but did not provide any details on when it would be released. However, US officials have said that this process may begin by the end of this week.
“We need to do more and the United States will do more,” he told reporters on Friday, adding that his country is considering establishing a maritime corridor to deliver aid to Gaza by sea.
On the same issue, White House spokesman John Kerby said, “The aid flow to Gaza is not enough.”He emphasized that ” “In this case airdropping relief would become a sustained effort.” He said the US military could drop prepared food for the military.
Earlier, Israeli soldiers opened fire on Palestinians at a relief center in northern Gaza in the early hours of last Thursday, believing they had ‘made a threat’. A local witness told AFP that thousands of people desperate for food flocked to the aid trucks in Gaza City’s western Nabulsi roundabout. That’s when the violence happened.
Relief-laden trucks came very close to some army tanks, said the witness, who did not want to be named for security reasons. At that time, thousands of people rushed towards the truck. They attacked the trucks. Israeli soldiers opened fire on the crowd as people got too close to the tanks.
The Israeli army initially said that as aid trucks entered the northern Gaza Strip, residents of Gaza surrounded the trucks and looted the aid supplies. Dozens of Gazans were injured in the stampede and stampede during the incident. This incident is under review.
Sources told AFP on condition of anonymity that people came so close to Israeli forces; which posed a threat to the soldiers. Later the threat was countered by fresh firing.
An Israeli Defense Force (IDF) official said Israeli troops were forced to open fire as Palestinians approached the aid vehicle.