Local reports say at least five Gazans were killed as of Friday afternoon after being hit by aid packages whose parachutes did not deploy properly, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Several Gazans were also alleged to have been injured by the malfunctioning aid packages, the outlet noted. The U.S., Jordan, Egypt, France, the Netherlands and Belgium all reportedly dropped aid over Gaza on Friday, however a defense official said reports of the U.S. aid killing Gazans are false. (RELATED: Kamala Harris Calls For ‘Immediate’ Ceasefire At Gaza Strip)
“We can confirm that the U.S. did not cause fatalities during our aid drop in Gaza,” the defense official said.
“We can confirm that the U.S. did not cause fatalities during our aid drop in Gaza,” a defense official to @Check_Your_Fact just now. https://t.co/SH6m8FhQPr
— Elias Atienza (@AtienzaElias) March 8, 2024
Aid airdropped into Gaza experienced a failure, killing five Palestinians earlier today. pic.twitter.com/XK6Eq4ZbIU
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) March 8, 2024
The video shows several packages slamming into an area where Gazans were standing. A crowd then began to swarm the area where the aid landed, however the video itself did not appear to show anyone who was allegedly killed by a package.
The Israelis have coordinated 25 airdrops into the Gaza Strip containing “over 750 packages of humanitarian aid” since the start of the war with the United States, France, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan, according to Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the organization that is responsible for such activity.
President Joe Biden has been adamant that not enough aid is being let into the Gaza Strip. During his State of the Union address, he announced that the American military would construct a special port in Gaza to facilitate a greater amount of aid to those in need.
Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War, COGAT has let in 16,093 trucks containing some 297, 360 tons of aid into the Gaza Strip, according to the agency’s website.
COGAT has repeatedly claimed that there is no set limit to aid that can get into the Gaza Strip.