Child dies during aid airdrop in Khan Younis: Hospital
A child in Khan Younis has died while trying to retrieve airdropped aid in Khan Younis, our colleagues on the ground cite Nasser Hospital as saying.
UN agencies have long warned that airdrops are inefficient and dangerous. Much of the aid falls into unsafe or inaccessible areas and people often have to navigate chaotic crowds to try to retrieve it.
Palestinians run towards parachutes airdropping aid over northern Gaza, August 7
‘People are tearing each other apart’ for limited aid
We’ve spoken to displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza as they scramble to try to secure a portion of the limited aid being airdropped into the besieged enclave.
Ismail al-Fayoumi said he walked a long distance to try to get food for his family. He came away with a single bag of milk.
“May God ease our situation,” he told Al Jazeera. “We hope they start bringing aid officially, through proper warehouses, not through airdrops. People are tearing each other apart for it, and the amount is so limited. What can a single pack like this do for an entire family?”
Another displaced man, Mustafa Tanani, likened the situation to “a battle”. “We come from far away and end up with nothing,” he said. “The planes are dropping aid for nothing – look where they threw it, up there between the buildings. It’s dangerous for us. There’s even a box hanging up high – it’s too risky to go and get it.”
Israeli attacks on Gaza schools part of effort to displace Palestinians
Moataz El Fegiery, vice president of the EuroMed Rights coalition, says today’s Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on “unlawful” Israeli attacks on schools sheltering displaced civilians in Gaza undercuts Israel’s claims that the facilities are used by Hamas.
“It provides substantial evidence to refute the story marketed by Israel internationally that there are civilian sites which are used by Hamas fighters. It’s very clear from this report that there is no evidence” to back that up, El Fegiery told Al Jazeera.
As we reported earlier, HRW investigated deadly Israeli strikes on Gaza schools-turned-shelters and found “no evidence of a military target”, thus making them “unlawfully indiscriminate”.
El Fegiery added that Israel’s goal since the beginning of the war has been to transform Gaza into an unlivable place, thereby pressuring Palestinians to leave.
“This report, we need to look at it in a broader context,” he said of HRW’s findings.
“Israel has an intention to target these institutions so they [can] achieve massive killings and casualties among civilians. But at the same time, [they want to] spread a climate of fear and terrorise civilians so they can leave the territory.”
