The United States carried out its first airdrop of humanitarian aid into Gaza on Saturday in cooperation with Jordan, as the Biden administration tries to prevent a bigger humanitarian disaster amid frustration with Israel.
US aircraft carried out the airstrike along with the Jordanian Air Force, the US Central Command said in a statement on Saturday.
The airdrops contribute “to the ongoing efforts of the US government to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza,” the statement said. “We are conducting planning for possible follow-up air assistance missions.”
Three US Air Force cargo planes dropped 66 pallets over southwestern Gaza, a US official said. The pallets contained 38,000 ready-to-eat meals.
The drops come a day after President Biden said the United States would find new ways to get aid to Palestinians who are in desperate need because of Israel’s five-month military campaign to destroy Hamas. It also comes two days after more than 100 Palestinians were killed as Israeli forces opened fire around a convoy of aid trucks in northern Gaza.
US officials said the incident showed the desperation of Palestinians in Gaza and that the ground convoys Israel has allowed into the territory are not providing enough relief. But they caution that airdrops can’t carry supplies on the scale of convoys — even large military cargo planes like the C-130s used Saturday can carry only a fraction of the supplies that a convoy of trucks can. In addition, aid on the ground is difficult to secure and distribute in an orderly manner.
Their main goal, officials said, is to negotiate a pause in the fighting that would allow much more truck traffic to enter.
It was unclear when the next airstrike might take place, with bad weather forecast for Gaza on Sunday.
