At least 12 Palestinians drowned off the northern Gaza coast near Beit Lahia on Monday while trying to reach airdropped parcels that had landed in the sea, according to local paramedics. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere were strong currents and all the parachutes fell in the water. People want to eat and are hungry,\u201d he said. \u201cI haven\u2019t been able to receive anything. The youth can run and get these aid (drops), but for us it\u2019s a different story. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe call for the opening of the crossings in a proper fashion, but these humiliating methods are not acceptable,\u201d added Abu Mohammad. <\/p>\n
Earlier this month, at\u00a0least five people were killed and 10 others injured when airdropped aid packages fell on them in Al Shati camp west of Gaza City, according to a journalist on the scene.\u00a0Human rights groups have repeatedly criticized airdrops as an inefficient and degrading way of getting aid to Gazans, instead urging Israeli authorities to lift controls on land crossings into the enclave. <\/p>\n
Hamas has called on Western countries to end airdrops of aid\u00a0into Gaza, warning that the humanitarian delivery method is \u201coffensive, wrong, inappropriate and useless.\u201d Hamas has from the outset been critical of airdrops, describing them as \u201cuseless\u201d and \u201cnot the best way to bring aid in.\u201d <\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s severe restrictions on aid entering the Gaza Strip have drained essential supplies, condemning the entire population of more than 2.2 million people to the risk of famine, according to a UN-backed report. Humanitarian bodies including Oxfam and Human Rights Watch have warned Israel is \u201cusing starvation of civilians as a weapon of war in Gaza, which is a war crime.\u201d Israel insists there is \u201cno limit\u201d on the amount of aid that can enter Gaza, but its inspection regime means relief is barely trickling in. <\/p>\n
Still, a senior US defense official said Tuesday there had been a \u201csignificant increase\u201d in the amount of aid flowing into Gaza through various crossings, resulting in nearly 200 trucks coming in a day, up from about 100 trucks a day in February. <\/p>\n
The deaths <\/strong>came a day after Washington stepped aside and allowed the UN Security Council to pass\u00a0a resolution\u00a0calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution, proposed by the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council, demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, the immediate and unconditional release of hostages and \u201cthe urgent need to expand the flow\u201d of aid into Gaza. <\/p>\n Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz pushed back against the demand, saying his country would not abide by the resolution. Following the UN vote on Monday, Amnesty International\u00a0said\u00a0Israeli authorities \u201cmust immediately halt their brutal bombing campaign in Gaza and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.\u201d It added that, \u201cCivilian hostages must be immediately released.\u201d <\/p>\n The Pentagon said Tuesday that three bundles of aid out of the 80 delivered during the US airdrop over Gaza Monday had landed in the sea after a parachute malfunction. <\/p>\n \u201cDuring yesterday\u2019s humanitarian air drop, which included approximately 80 bundles, three bundles were reported to have had parachute malfunctions and landed in the water,\u201d Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said. \u201cIt is important to note that drop zones are chosen to mitigate potential failures of parachutes to deploy. These humanitarian aid drops occur over water and the wind causes the bundles to drift over to land. In the event of a parachute malfunction the bundles land in the water.\u201d <\/p>\n Another eyewitness to the mass drowning in Beit Lahia urged regional leaders to \u201clook at us and have mercy on us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n At least 12 Palestinians drowned off the northern Gaza coast near Beit Lahia on Monday while trying to reach airdropped parcels that had landed in the sea, according to local paramedics. \u201cThere were strong currents and all the parachutes fell in the water. People want to eat and are hungry,\u201d he said. \u201cI haven\u2019t been <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}