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- Hamas has called for an immediate end to the airborne landings and the opening of land border crossings
Hamas on Tuesday called for an end to aid airdrops in Gaza after it said 12 people drowned and six were killed in stampedes trying to reach food parcels.
The deaths occurred Monday in the starved north of the besieged area, where people rushed to collect parcels dropped from planes along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast.
Hamas said: “We call for an immediate end to the airborne operation and we demand the immediate and rapid opening of land border crossings so that humanitarian aid can reach our Palestinian people.”
This brings the Palestinian death toll since the war broke out in October to 32,531.
Twelve people drowned and six were killed in stampedes trying to reach the food parcels
Palestinians gather on a beach as they collect aid dropped by a plane, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip
The bombardment of Gaza by the IDF has led to a serious lack of aid reaching the area.
There have been numerous cases of mass shootings targeting Palestinians waiting for aid to be delivered by the IDF by road.
Desperation among starving Palestinians has led them to risk their lives to collect the food parcels that arrive, but this is dangerous because they are dropped from planes on the coast.
Aid agencies say that only a fraction of the supplies needed to meet basic humanitarian needs have arrived in Gaza since October.
It is much more dangerous to have to swim out to gather help than to receive it by road
The UN warns of famine.
According to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, aid entering the Gaza Strip by land is far below pre-war levels, at around 150 vehicles per day, compared to at least 500 before the war.