At least five people died and several were injured by the impact of pallets of humanitarian aid dropped by air in Gaza City, in the north of the enclave, confirmed the Civil Defense of the Strip.
"There were five martyrs and several injuries as a result of civilian aircraft incorrectly dropping aid, which fell on the heads and homes of citizens northwest of Gaza City this afternoon," Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said in a statement. .
As confirmed by eyewitnesses, the parachutes of several pallets did not open, so they fell at high speed on the roof of a building in which dozens of people took refuge who saw how the aid fell into the void.
"The random airdrop of aid today resulted in 5 martyrs and several injuries, despite our insistence that such operations are useless and are not the best way to deliver aid," the Gazan government, controlled by the Gaza Strip, said in a statement. by Hamas.
Given this, the Hamas Government demanded the opening of land crossings for the entry of more "immediate and urgent" humanitarian aid to prevent the deepening of famine in the Gaza Strip, especially in the north where it is estimated that there are 700,000 people at risk of hunger.
At least 20 people, most of them babies, but also an elderly man and a 15-year-old teenager, have died in recent weeks in the north of the enclave due to malnutrition and dehydration.
Given the difficulties in distributing humanitarian aid by land, for several weeks several countries have sent humanitarian aid and launched it directly by air, especially in the north, where the situation is more complicated.
Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and France are some of the first countries that resorted to this formula, which the US joined a week ago, and since then it has carried out three launches - in cooperation with Jordan - of 38,000 rations of food each.
President Joe Biden announced last night the construction of a temporary port off the coast of Gaza to facilitate the entry of aid through a maritime corridor that will open this weekend from Cyprus, in an initiative of the European Union and the United States, in which the United Kingdom or the Emirates will also participate.
In five months of war, more than 30,800 people have died in the Strip, where hunger has also begun to claim lives, at least twenty people in the north.
