161 aid packages airdropped into Gaza as famine toll rises

Jerusalem/Amman, Aug 18 (IANS) A total of 161 packages containing food were airdropped over the Gaza Strip during an aid operation carried out by nine countries, the Israeli military said, as famine continues to spread in the enclave after nearly two years of war.

Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark and Indonesia joined the airdrop operation, the military said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Jordanian Armed Forces said in a statement that about 106 tonnes of food and relief supplies were dropped during the operation, Xinhua news agency reported.

Israel's army said the operation was coordinated "in accordance with the directives from the political echelon," while rejecting accusations of deliberate starvation.

The military began coordinating the airdrop of food packages in late July, under mounting international pressure as famine deepened in the enclave.

Saturday's flight from an air base just outside the Jordanian capital Amman took place a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government faced a wave of condemnation from European leaders, Arab nations and a group representing the families of hostages after it announced plans to take control of Gaza City in the north of the enclave.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the plan on Friday as a "dangerous escalation" that risks "deepening the already catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians".

Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, also said in a statement that "the Israeli government should put all its efforts into saving the lives of Gaza's civilians by allowing the full, unfettered flow of humanitarian aid".

Deaths from starvation in Gaza have been on the rise after Israel launched a crippling blockade barring the entry of food and other vital supplies into the enclave in early March before ending its ceasefire with Hamas.

It lifted the blockade in May, allowing a basic amount of aid into Gaza, largely distributed under a controversial new distribution system led by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Since then, nearly 1,400 people have been killed and more than 4,000 injured while seeking food, the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an update on August 12.

Experts and aid groups have called the drops inadequate, unsafe and ineffective in preventing the spread of famine, urging Israel to allow more aid trucks in and to enable the rebuilding of Gaza's health system, which has been largely destroyed by Israeli strikes.

Gaza-based health authorities said famine is spreading, with hospitals reporting seven deaths in the past 24 hours, including two children, from hunger and malnutrition. That brought the total deaths from starvation to 258, among them 110 children.

Israel has maintained there is no starvation in Gaza and that the situation on the ground is being exaggerated, almost 22 months after it launched its offensive following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, marking a major escalation in a decades-long conflict.

--IANS

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