The humanitarian air drops into the Gaza Strip have allegedly claimed their first victims.
The aerial resupply to provide aid to Palestinians was met with skepticism from critics of the administration’s Israeli policy. Liberal journalist Ken Klippenstein described the operation as a “publicity stunt” while President Biden scrambles to secure a cease-fire. Despite the government’s penchant for incompetence, Klippenstein believed it could be accomplished without casualties.
That no longer appears to be feasible, as the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry announced on Friday that a crate with a malfunctioning parachute killed five Palestinian children. (RELATED: Heavily Armed Gangs Try To Seize Control Of Country’s Largest Airport)
As CNN reports:
Some of those injured in the incident and transferred to Al Shifa are in serious condition, according to Al-Sheikh.
In a video obtained by CNN on Friday, an airdrop goes wrong when the parachute on a pallet malfunctions. The pallet and its contents can be seen falling at a high speed towards a residential building near the Fairoz Towers in western Gaza.
As the aid races towards the ground, free-falling bags are also seen coming apart in a shower of debris, and later seen and heard impacting the ground with audible loud thuds.
While most of the other parachutes appear to have deployed properly, the pallets are still falling at a potentially dangerous speed, which could have made it difficult for anyone to get out of its way as it touched down on the ground.
Richard Gowan, U.N. director for the International Crisis Group, explained to CNN that airdrops are often ineffective at delivering aid but politically beneficial as photo ops.
“Humanitarian workers always complain that airdrops are good photo opportunities but a lousy way to deliver aid,” he said.
A journalist in northern Gaza told CNN that Palestinians there are frustrated because the air-dropped aid often lacks essential or practical items.
Local resident Abdel Qader Al Sabbah called the drops “useless,” saying residents need food parcels that can be stored and used over several days, not single serve meals that are difficult to repackage.
“You are lucky if you even get a hold of these meals…I don’t even bother to go searching for these aid parcels because people are always fighting over them,” he added.
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