US launches air aid operation for Gaza with launch of 38,000 food packages

The United States military began its air aid operation for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip this Saturday, delivering 38,000 food packages on 66 pallets dropped from three C-130 aircraft flying over the enclave at low altitude. As military sources confirmed to NBC News.

Thus begins the operation authorized this week by United States President Joe Biden to attempt to ease the devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by the Israeli military campaign in response to the October 7 terrorist attacks.

In recent times, Jordan has initiated a number of aid deliveries through the same system, as the entry of humanitarian aid by land is becoming increasingly difficult due to the fighting and the Israeli blockade of routes to the enclave.

However, this type of aid has been viewed with considerable skepticism by international NGOs and prominent diplomatic representatives such as EU High Representative Josep Borrell, deeming it little more than a symbolic effort to support desperate Palestinians trying to It also puts the security of the country at risk. To access the packages.

“Airdrops cannot and will not replace humanitarian access,” the NGO International Rescue Committee warned on Friday. “The fact that air drops are even being considered is evidence of the serious access challenges in Gaza, where more than half a million people are facing famine conditions,” he said.

Borrell, for his part, described that this type of operation has “minimal impact” when it comes to meeting the needs of the population when, to give a tragic example, the enclave’s authorities have already increased the number of conflicts. From the beginning, children as young as 13 died of hunger.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has also criticized this approach with a statement issued this Saturday in which it condemned Israel’s apparent unwillingness to use its influence to get more humanitarian aid delivered to Gaza.

“The United States is behaving like a marginalized and weak country, unable to guarantee aid to the hungry in the Gaza Strip,” he lamented in a statement published on his X social network account.

The ministry expressed “extreme surprise at the weakness displayed by the United States”, which is “adopting measures inappropriate for a great power that, if it wishes, is capable of forcing Israel to protect Palestinian civilians.”

Even United States President Joe Biden, while announcing these operations last Friday, acknowledged that the enclave should receive “hundreds of aid trucks a day” because of “what is reaching Gaza right now.” That’s inadequate, and there are lives left “in the game”.