According to an American official, three US military cargo planes airdropped food into the beleaguered Gaza Strip on Saturday. Following months of conflict, the coastal region is now experiencing a worsening humanitarian catastrophe.
“We conducted a combined humanitarian assistance air drop into Gaza” involving three US Air Force C-130s to provide “relief to civilians affected by the ongoing conflict,” a US Central Command official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
According to the official, the planes dropped “66 total bundles of pork-free meals” on Saturday afternoon local time; however, the tonnage information is not yet available.
Amidst the killings of over 100 Palestinians at an aid convoy on Thursday, President Joe Biden had declared the day before that the United States will begin airdropping relief supplies into Gaza.
The UN has issued a famine warning for northern Gaza, which has been under siege since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7. In that episode, hundreds of desperate Palestinians were killed while storming a convoy in that area.
Biden has pushed Israel to reduce civilian casualties and allow aid in, while at the same time he has maintained military assistance for the key US ally.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, announced on Friday that the US intended to conduct several air drops over the course of several weeks.
He called it a “tough military operation” that needed to be carefully planned by the Pentagon to ensure the security of US military troops as well as Gazan civilians.
