WASHINGTON – The United States will begin airdropping humanitarian aid into Gaza with Jordan and other countries, President Joe Biden announced on Friday (US time) – a day after Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid.
“Innocent people got caught in a terrible war, unable to feed their families and you saw the response when they tried to get aid.
“But we need to do more and the US will do more in the coming days,” Anadolu Agency (AA) quoted Biden as saying ahead of his meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the White House.
Biden added that the US will provide airdrops of additional food and supplies.
The US will also seek to open up other avenues into Gaza, including the possibility of a marine corridor delivering large amounts of humanitarian assistance.
In addition to expanding deliveries by land, Biden said that the US will insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes into Gaza, adding: “Aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough now – it’s nowhere nearly enough.
“Innocent lives are on the line and children’s lives are on the line,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said it will hold an “extraordinary meeting” of its Council of Foreign Ministers on March 5 “to discuss the continued Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people.”
The pan-Islamic body in a statement said the session will convene at its headquarters in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, reported AA.
Last November, the OIC and the Arab League held a joint summit in Riyadh, which adopted a number of decisions including assigning a committee to tour world capitals and seek to stop the Israeli war against the Palestinian people.
On Thursday, Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid at the Al Nabulsi roundabout on Al Rashid Street, a major coastal road to the west of Gaza City in northern Gaza, leaving at least 115 Palestinians dead and 760 injured.
The Israeli military said an initial investigation found that Palestinians approached a military checkpoint overseeing the entry of the aid trucks when soldiers fired warning shots and shot at the legs of Palestinians who continued to move toward the troops.
Since the attack on October 7, more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 70,457 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities. – March 2, 2024