18 Palestinians killed in unsafe aid airdrop, Gaza govt. holds US, Israel ‘fully responsible’

The Gaza Government Media Office says at least 18 Palestinians have been killed as a result of unsafe humanitarian airdrop by the United States and its allies on the Gaza Strip.

Washington and Tel Aviv are “fully responsible” for the continuation of such crimes in the besieged territory, the office said in a statement on Tuesday.

12 of the Palestinians drowned and six died due to stampedes for retrieving the packages in the sea off the coast of the northern Gaza Strip.

The statement condemned such operations and called for an immediate end to airdrop landings carried out by the US and its allies.

“We call for an immediate halt to aid airdrop operations in this offensive, incorrect, inappropriate, and ineffective manner, and we demand the immediate and swift opening of the land crossings to allow humanitarian aid into our Palestinian people who suffer from hunger and a severe shortage of food for the sixth consecutive month.”

“We hold the American administration, the international community, and the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the continuation of these combined crimes, which the world has been powerless to stop and put an end to amid ongoing operations of starvation, killing, and genocide.”

Denouncing the Israeli blocking of crossings into Gaza and its imposed starvation on Palestinians, the Media Office called on the international community to “play a practical role” in stopping the occupying regime’s crimes in the besieged territory.

“We express our strong condemnation and denunciation of the crime of closing the crossings, the crime of war of starvation, the crime of the unjust siege, the crime of genocide, and ethnic cleansing, which the Israeli occupation army continues to commit with all brutality and vengeance,” the statement said.

“We demand all UN and international organizations fulfill their roles, and we call on all countries in the world to condemn the genocide practiced by the occupation with all brutality, and we urge them all to move beyond the square of condemnations, denunciations, and silence, and to play a practical role in stopping the policy of starvation, immediately opening the crossings, and stopping the ongoing massacres against civilians, children, and women.”

Over the past months, the United States, Jordan, Egypt and France have conducted airdrop operations into Gaza, which has been under a complete Israeli siege as well as incessant bombardment since October 2023, with critics saying airdropping is an unsafe and insufficient means of aid delivery.

Hamas says aid airdrops into Gaza ‘useless’, won't meet demands

Hamas says humanitarian aid airdrops do not meet even one percent of demand for aid in Gaza.

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has on several occasions stated that airdropping of humanitarian aid into Gaza is “useless” as the aids are not sufficient to even meet one percent of the demand.

Hamas says people in Gaza would have had access to thousands of tons of aid if the US had done enough to pressure Israel to open border crossings into the besieged territory.

Israel ignited its bloody war machine in Gaza on October 7 after Hamas-led resistance groups carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Since then, the regime has killed more than 32,300 Palestinians and injured over 74,000 others.

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