Five killed, several injured as parachute fails to open during aid drop in Gaza
humanitarian airdrop's parachute failed to open, a pallet crashed into a group of civilians queuing for food north of Gaza City's Shati refugee camp, killing five and injuring several others on Friday, according to Al Jazeera.
Following the event on Friday, the Gaza government media office acknowledged the number of injuries, denouncing the «useless» airdrops as «flashy propaganda rather than humanitarian service» and advocating for the availability of food to pass through land borders.
«We previously warned it poses a threat to the lives of citizens in the Gaza Strip and this is what happened today when the parcels fell on the citizens' heads,» it said in a statement.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported last month that at least half a million, or one in four people in Gaza, feared famine.
The killings took place as the enclave was gripped by a famine. It brought attention to the difficulty of delivering much-needed humanitarian aid into Gaza in the face of Israeli restrictions. The main UN organization in Gaza, UNRWA, claims that since January 23, Israeli authorities have forbidden them from transporting supplies to the northern part of the strip, Al Jazeera reported.
The World Food Programme stated that the military forced its first convoy to the north in two weeks to turn back on Tuesday.
The organization had suspended delivery in Gaza due to security concerns. As a result, several nations have carried
