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Palestinians gather to collect food aid in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on February 26.
CNN
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The United States will begin airlifting food aid to people in the Gaza Strip as the humanitarian crisis deepens and Israel continues to resist opening additional land routes to enable further aid to the war-torn strip. President Joe Biden made the announcement Friday.
Speaking from the Oval Office, Biden said the United States would “do everything in our power” to get additional aid to Gaza, which has been under heavy Israeli shelling since the Oct. 7 Hamast terrorist attack.
Biden said aid was not flowing to Gaza fast enough and was working to broker an immediate cease-fire agreement that would allow additional aid to flow.
The airdrop will provide some relief to those on the ground. However, using this method is not a sustainable solution to Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, as it only injects a fraction of the amount of aid that can be trucked into the enclave.
Rather, their use highlights the devastating impact of the Israeli government’s continued refusal to open more land routes for urgently needed aid. U.S. demands for Netanyahu’s government to open more checkpoints in the north have so far failed. In the south, the number of trucks entering the war-torn area fell to just 85 per day last week.
“They would be useful immediately,” State Department spokesman Matt Miller told CNN Thursday in response to a question about the possibility of conducting airdrops.
“But the real solution here is to try to get or get agreements that dramatically increase the flow of aid, solve the logistics problems, solve the support problems faced by civilians. I should say, ‘so that in the event of an actual intrusion, we can move safely and go to rescue,”’ Miller said at a department briefing.
Earlier this week, Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, Qatar and France airdropped relief supplies to various parts of the Gaza Strip, showing how desperate the situation has become.
AFP/Getty Images
Palestinians run along the road as humanitarian aid from Jordan is airdropped into Gaza City on March 1, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas militant group.
U.S. officials have repeatedly pressed Israeli officials in face-to-face meetings about the urgent need to open additional crossings.
“This is a matter of life and death,” said USAID Director Samantha Power, who met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday.
Additionally, we are in discussions with Israel and other stakeholders about the possibility of a maritime corridor for humanitarian assistance to Gaza, but a number of logistical challenges need to be addressed before this corridor becomes operational. A US official told CNN.
CNN’s Oren Lieberman contributed reporting.
This story has been interrupted and will be updated.
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