Aid parcels are airdropped over the northern Gaza Strip on March 8, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories: An international effort is gathering pace to get desperately needed humanitarian relief into Gaza by sea in a bid to counter overland access restrictions imposed by Israel.
The dire conditions more than five months into the war have led some countries to airdrop food and other assistance over the besieged Gaza Strip, but a parachute malfunction turned the latest operation lethal on Friday.
Five Palestinians were killed and 10 wounded north of the coastal Al-Shati refugee camp, said Mohammed al-Sheikh, emergency room head nurse at Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital.
A witness told AFP he and his brother followed the parachuted aid in the hope of getting "a bag of flour".
"Then, all of a sudden, the parachute didn't open and fell down like a rocket," hitting a house, said Mohammed al-Ghoul.
Jordanian and US military officials denied that aircraft from either country caused the fatalities.
"We express sympathies to the families of those who were killed," the US Central Command said in a statement.
"Contrary to some reports, this was not the result of US airdrops."
Belgium, Egypt, France and the Netherlands were also involved in the airdrop.
In the Cypriot port of Larnaca, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen expressed hope that a maritime corridor could open this Sunday, although details remained unclear.
She said a "pilot operation" was to be launched on Friday, aided by the United Arab Emirates which secured "the first of many shipments of goods to the people of Gaza".
US President Joe Biden said in Thursday's State of the Union address that the US military would build a "temporary pier" off Gaza's coast to bring in aid.
He told reporters on Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must allow in more aid, a day after he warned Israeli leaders against using aid as "a bargaining chip".
The United Nations has repeatedly warned of looming famine in the Gaza Strip, which is under Israeli siege following the October 7 attack by Hamas that triggered the war.
UN agencies have urged increased overland access, insisting that air or sea delivery was ineffective.
Biden acknowledged that hopes for a new truce deal before Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month that could begin on Sunday depending on the lunar calendar, were "looking tough".
