Daily Times

American cargo planes air-dropped 38,000 meals into the besieged Gaza Strip on Saturday, part of a series of drops planned by Washington to help curb a growing humanitarian crisis in the war-racked territory.

The United Nations has warned of famine in Gaza, and more than 100 people were left dead earlier this week in a frenzied scramble for food from a truck convoy delivering aid, with Israeli forces opening fire on the crowd. US President Joe Biden — under mounting political pressure over the plight of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip — had announced the imminent air drops on Friday.

“US Central Command and the Royal Jordanian Air Force conducted a combined humanitarian assistance air drop into Gaza on March 2, 2024, between 3:00 and 5:00 pm (Gaza time) to provide essential relief to civilians affected by the ongoing conflict,” the American military command said on social media.

CENTCOM said US C-130 military cargo planes “dropped over 38,000 meals along the coastline of Gaza allowing for civilian access to the critical aid.” The air drops are “part of a sustained effort to get more aid into Gaza, including by expanding the flow of aid through land corridors and routes,” the command added. A CENTCOM official told AFP that the drop was made up of US military rations that did not contain pork, the consumption of which is prohibited by Islam.