Worthy Christian News > Israel-Palestinian Conflict > Five Killed In US Airdrop In Gaza As Israel Ponders Arming Civilians

Five Killed In US Airdrop In Gaza As Israel Ponders Arming Civilians

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

GAZA CITY/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Five people were killed Friday after being hit by aid dropped by the United States in Gaza as at least one parachute failed to deploy correctly and one or more parcels fell on them, according to Israeli sources and Gaza officials.

Officials from Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health mentioned that the five were in the “Al-Shati refugee camp” in northern Gaza when the incident occurred “at around 4:30 a.m. Eastern time” in the United States.

There were reportedly two boys among the five people killed, while 11 others were injured in the incident. The exact ages of the casualties were not clear, but those wounded were said to be between 30 and 50 years old.

The tragedy came while Israel’s government was pondering arming some civilians in Gaza not linked to any terror group or militia, such as Hamas, to provide security aid convoys into the besieged enclave, Israeli media reported Friday.

The move would be part of broader planning for humanitarian supplies after the fighting ends, the Israel Hayom daily said.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to have “postponed” a decision, but officials were already discussing the possibility, Worthy News learned.

The news broke just hours after the deadly airdrop and followed last week’s reported killings of more than 100 Palestinians in violence surrounding the arrival of aid convoys.

ISRAEL DENIES

Israel’s military has denied that its forces deliberately shot at the crowds late last month, saying most were killed in a stampede surrounding a convoy of aid trucks arriving in Gaza.

But it did acknowledge that soldiers fired at a separate group allegedly threatening them.

Israeli forces have often faced attacks by Palestinian gunmen in and outside Gaza during and before Israel’s war against Hamas. That also became clear in the West Bank, the other Palestinian enclave where tensions rise, Israeli sources said.

“Terrorists” in the West Bank attacked a military outpost near the settlement of Homesh on Friday, wounding seven troops, Israel’s army confirmed.

The troops were wounded by an explosive device during the pursuit of the attackers and rushed to a nearby hospital, according to Israeli media.

The number of injuries was higher than previously reported. More details were not immediately available about the attackers, but the violence came amid growing pressure on the Israel Defense Forces operating in the West Bank and Gaza, the other enclave where war rages between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters.

WEST BANK ATTACKS

The West Bank has seen a series of attacks targeting Israelis in recent months as the Israel-Hamas escalates.

Aid workers say the clashes have made it more difficult to provide aid to the region, especially Gaza, where the United Nations claims more than a quarter of the enclave’s 2.3 million people were “estimated to be facing catastrophic levels of deprivation and starvation.”

However, Israeli defense officials have denied the alleged “hunger” is due to Israeli actions. They also disagree with Biden, with administration officials telling Israeli Minister Benny Gantz in Washington that the “food shortage crisis” impacting Palestinians in Gaza is “intolerable” and linked to a lack of aid arriving in the enclave.

The Jerusalem Post newspaper cited a senior Israeli defense official as saying, “There is no hunger in Gaza.” He added that most of the food Israel sent to the Gaza Strip was “immediately taken by Hamas terrorists, who then sell some of the supplies for ten times more than what it’s worth.”

A former senior Israeli defense official speaking on condition of anonymity said, “There is no food shortage in Gaza.”

But the source acknowledged, “There are those who are hungry since Hamas has taken all of the food, and they don’t have enough money to pay Hamas on the black market.”

The former official told The Jerusalem
Post that food “does not reach those who need it most” as “Hamas controls approximately 70-80 percent of the area.”

GANGS ACTIVE

After Israel and other countries bring food and other aid into Gaza, “gangs take the supplies at gunpoint, and a significant portion of the population is left unable to afford necessities,” the former Israeli defense official said.

“The situation in Gaza is akin to hunger in New York, where homeless people suffer not from a lack of food but from a lack of money to purchase it.”

While it’s inaccurate to say there is a famine in Gaza, “there are indeed hungry individuals struggling because they can’t afford food,” The Jerusalem Post said. “Even if Gaza were to be inundated with food supplies, hunger would persist because the issue at its core is not about availability but access and affordability,” the paper commented, citing officials.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry claims more than a dozen children died of malnutrition among more than 30,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks.

Those figures have been complex to verify, and the ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and the thousands of combatants reportedly killed by Israeli forces.

Israel says its war is not against civilians but Hamas after it carried out its October 7 attack in Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking some 250 others as hostages.