US resumes airdrops of aid into northern Gaza
The US military says it has resumed air drops of aid into Gaza.
A US cargo plane dropped more than 10 metric tonnes of rations into northern Gaza on Sunday.
The airdrop provided “life-saving humanitarian assistance in northern Gaza”, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement. “To date the US has airdropped more than 1,050 metric tons of humanitarian assistance” in addition to aid delivered via a temporary pier attached to the Gaza coast, it said.
“These airdrops are part of a sustained effort, and we continue to plan follow-on aerial deliveries,” CENTCOM added.
The United Nations has said the Palestinian territory has been brought to the brink of famine because not enough aid is reaching civilians. Airdrops are one of the least efficient ways of delivering assistance, but aid trucks have been prevented from crossing into Gaza.
The pier delivered 1,000 tons before it washed away. Now it's doing up to 500 tons every two days which is nothing but a drop in the bucket (equivalent of 13 large aid trucks per day) Dropping half a truck of aid, it's desperately needed, yet pressuring Israel to let an aid convoy through would help a lot more.
Or well, at least air drops actually have a chance of reaching people :/
WFP ‘pauses’ delivery of Gaza aid through US-built pier
Cindy McCain, the director of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), says the distribution of aid through the US-built pier off Gaza has been “paused” because of concerns about safety amid the latest Israeli assaults on Gaza.
McCain made her comments after she was asked about operations at the pier in an interview with the US broadcaster CBS.
“Right now, we’re paused,” she said on the Face the Nation programme, adding that two of the WFP’s warehouses had also come under rocket fire and one person had been injured.
“I’m concerned about the safety of our people. We’ve stepped back for the moment … to make sure we’re on safe terms and on safe ground before we’ll restart. But the rest of the country is operational. We’re doing everything we can in the north and the south.”
McCain did not say when operations might resume at the pier, which was completed in mid-May but was then damaged in a storm, which meant operations were suspended for two weeks.
