US Denies Involvement in Death of 5 Gaza Residents When Air Aid Was Dropped

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Jakarta –

The United States (US) has denied involvement in the deaths of five Palestinians who were waiting for air-dropped humanitarian aid when several parachutes dropped from a plane that failed to open northwest of Gaza City on Friday. The US expressed its sympathy to the families of the victims who died.

“We are aware of reports of civilians being killed as a result of humanitarian airstrikes,” said US Central Command (CENTCOM) in a statement, reported by Anadolu Agency, Sunday (10/3/2024).

“Contrary to some reports, this was not the result of a US airstrike,” he added.

CENTCOM extends its condolences to the families of those killed.

The Palestinian Civil Defense Service announced on Friday that five people were killed and several others injured by air-dropped aid boxes in Gaza City after several parachutes failed to open properly.

For more than a week, Arab countries, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Jordan, Qatar, the Sultanate of Oman, and Bahrain, have carried out a joint operation to drop food aid in the Gaza Strip, a similar operation also carried out by the US.

Israel has launched retaliatory attacks against Gaza since the cross-border attack by Hamas on October 7. The attacks have killed more than 30,800 victims and injured nearly 73,000 others amid mass destruction and shortages of basic goods.

Israel also implemented a crippling blockade of the Palestinian enclave, leaving its residents, especially residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

Some 85% of Gaza’s residents have been forced to flee due to Israeli attacks amid shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the infrastructure in the enclave has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel was accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take action to ensure that humanitarian aid is provided to civilians in Gaza.

5 People Killed

Previously, a medical officer at the largest hospital in Gaza said that humanitarian aid dropped from the air into the Palestinian territory had killed five people and injured 10 others.

Reported by the AFP news agency, Saturday (9/3/2024), the victims were taken to Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the head of the emergency room nurse, Mohammed al-Sheikh, told AFP.

Sheikh said the deadly incident occurred north of the Al-Shati refugee camp.

A witness from the camp told AFP that he and his brother followed the aid tied to parachute cords in the hope of getting a bag of flour.

Then suddenly the parachute didn’t open and it fell like a rocket on the roof of one of the houses, said Mohammed al-Ghoul.

“Ten minutes later I saw people moving three martyrs and other injured people, who were living under the roof of the house where the aid packages fell,” the 50-year-old told AFP.

The United States and Jordan are among the countries dropping aid from the air in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people face dire conditions after more than five months of war between Israel and Hamas.

A Jordanian military source told AFP that the kingdom was not involved in the fatal incident on Friday (8/3) local time.

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(yld/gbr)