‘Aerial humiliation, not aid': Teenage boy killed by aid drop in Gaza
Muhannad Eid was running towards the heavy packages as they were dropped near the so-called Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza on Saturday when one crushed him, his brother Muhammad Eid said.
Video of the tragic incident, shared to social media, showed more large pallets hitting the ground, before showing Muhannad's body being dragged from underneath a crate and carried away from the crowds.
'Despite the famine and the hard conditions that we live in, my brother went to get aid that was dropped into the sea by planes,' Muhammad told Reuters.
'A box fell on him directly and he was martyred. (The countries involved in the airdrops) cannot enter the aid through the crossing but they drop them over us and kill our children. A kid was killed in (az-)Zawayda and here and there, and nobody feels us … This is an aerial humiliation, not aid. We need protection. We want international protection.'
Muhannad's death comes amid repeated warnings that the parachuted deliveries are costly, ineffective and deadly, on top of failing to meet the demand of food, baby formula and other supplies required to address the unfolding famine in the territory.
At least 23 Palestinians have been killed and another 124 wounded in the airdrops since October, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.
'We have repeatedly warned of the danger of these inhumane methods and have repeatedly called for the entry of aid through land crossings in a safe and sufficient manner, especially food, infant milk, medicines, and medical supplies,' it said in a statement.
Civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Basal noted there were 'daily injuries and fatalities caused by the heavy parcels falling on people's heads in densely populated areas', adding that stampedes and overcrowding at aid drop sites also frequently lead to casualties.
Texas-based orthopaedic surgeon Dr Umar Burney, who has been treating patients at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in northern Gaza, told NBC News on Sunday he had treated 'multiple patients who've been crushed by these sort of unplanned, unannounced aid drops on top of their heads, literally on top of their heads'.
'Those aid drops are actually causing havoc,' Dr Burney said.
Getting vital aid into the besieged territory has become a key issue in the conflict, creating a deadly wave of starvation and malnutrition among more than two million Palestinians – one human rights groups say has been exacerbated by an Israeli blockade on supplies, imposed from March to late May after ceasefire talks broke down.
The easing of the blockade coincided with the beginning of the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's (GHF) operations, which effectively sidelined Gaza's traditionally UN-led aid distribution system, and which have been criticised as grossly inadequate. Since the GHF began its operation in May, the UN said more than 1300 people have died while trying to receive aid, most of them shot by Israeli forces near the sites.
Israel began allowing limited airdrops from the likes of Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, and, to an even lesser extent, land transport into Gaza in July, though the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on Saturday it had been barred from bringing any humanitarian aid into Gaza for more than five months.
'This is no longer a looming hunger crisis – this is starvation, pure and simple,' OCHA's co-ordination director Ramesh Rajasingham said.
An estimated 217 civilians, among them 100 children, have died from malnutrition in the last 22 months, according to the UN's humanitarian office OCHA. Most have occurred in recent weeks.
Israel has maintained there is no starvation in Gaza. In an interview with the ABC's 7:30 on Monday night, Israel's ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon insisted that 'the government of Israel is not – is not – there is no starvation policy'.
'That's not to say that we believe the condition on the ground are ideal,' Mr Maimon continued, after being repeatedly asked by host Sarah Ferguson to disclose 'how many children' have died of starvation in Gaza.
'There are real challenges in recent two weeks, we're not responsible for the distribution. It's also very important to recognise the role of Hamas – the negative role of Hamas – in preventing aid to reach all those needed Palestinians.'
'Do you accept 100 children in Gaza have died of starvation in recent months? Do you accept those statistics?' Ferguson responded.
'Let me pose this question. How many children do they say have died from starvation in recent months?'
'Well, I have no figures, but I can push back on the Israeli hostages that did not receive humanitarian aid since October 7, nor a visit from the – none of the organisations that are responsible to assist those who are in need,' Mr Maimon replied.
'I can talk about the starvation of David, who was just released, and I don't hear much, you know, talk about him and about the very poor condition that he was held in.
'I am not also hearing any reports about the fact that he was forced to dig his own grave, he's not the first one.'
The ABC host replied that the conditions the hostages are being held in, in Gaza, were 'repulsive and rejected by all decent-minded humans around the world'.
'But we're here to talk about decisions by the Israeli government at the moment,' she said.
'Let me ask you a final question – as an ambassador, you are obliged in your position to maintain your government's position. In our own heart, do you believe the killing and starving of civilians in Gaza should stop?'
'Once again, there is no policy of starvation,' the ambassador said.
'I feel very sad for any loss of innocent life. I lost two members of my family on October 7. Every child matters. Whether it's Israeli or Palestinian. And it is very sad. It's a tragedy. But it's also important to remember that the Hamas bears the responsibility, the Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
'It's a war we didn't ask for, nor we started. It's a war we want to end.'
With AFP
Originally published as 'Aerial humiliation, not aid': Teenage boy killed by aid drop in Gaza
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Wells are mostly inaccessible or destroyed, aid groups and the local utility say. UNRWA — the UN agency for Palestinian refugees — said Thursday that its health centres now see an average of 10,300 patients a week with infectious diseases, mostly diarrhoea from contaminated water. Thirst is only growing as a heat wave bears down, with humidity and temperatures in Gaza soaring on Friday to 35 degrees. Mahmoud al-Dibs, a father displaced from Gaza City to Muwasi, dumped water over his head from a flimsy plastic bag — one of the vessels used to carry water in the camps. "Outside the tents it is hot and inside the tents, it is hot, so we are forced to drink this water wherever we go," he said. The few people still possessing rooftop tanks can't muster enough water to clean them, so what flows from their taps is yellow and unsafe, said Bushra Khalidi, an official with Oxfam, an aid group working in Gaza. Before the war, the coastal enclave's more than two million residents got their water from a patchwork of sources. Some was piped in by Mekorot, Israel's national water utility. Some came from desalination plants. Some was pulled from high-saline wells, and some imported in bottles. Every source has been jeopardised. Palestinians are relying more heavily on groundwater, which today makes up more than half of Gaza's supply. The well water has historically been brackish, but still serviceable for cleaning, bathing, or farming, according to Palestinian water officials and aid groups. Now people have to drink it. The effects of drinking unclean water don't always appear right away, said Mark Zeitoun, director general of the Geneva Water Hub, a policy institute. "Untreated sewage mixes with drinking water, and you drink that or wash your food with it, then you're drinking microbes and can get dysentery," Zeitoun said. "If you're forced to drink salty, brackish water, it just does your kidneys in, and then you're on dialysis for decades." In February, acute watery diarrhoea accounted for less than 20 per cent of reported illnesses in Gaza. By July, it had surged to 44 per cent, raising the risk of severe dehydration, according to UNICEF, the UN children's agency. After waking early to stand in line for an hour under the August heat, Rana Odeh returns to her tent with her jug of murky water. She wipes the sweat from her brow and strategises how much to portion out to her two small children. From its colour alone, she knows full well it's likely contaminated. Thirst supersedes the fear of illness. She fills small bottles for her son and daughter and pours a sip into a teacup for herself. What's left she adds to a jerrycan for later. "We are forced to give it to our children because we have no alternative," said Odeh, who was driven from her home in Khan Younis. "It causes diseases for us and our children." Such scenes have become the grim routine in Muwasi, a sprawling displacement camp in central Gaza where hundreds of thousands endure scorching summer heat. Sweat-soaked and dust-covered, parents and children chase down water trucks that come every two or three days, filling bottles, canisters and buckets and then hauling them home, sometimes on donkey-drawn carts. Each drop is rationed for drinking, cooking, cleaning or washing. Some reuse what they can and save a couple of cloudy inches in their jerrycans for whatever tomorrow brings — or doesn't. When water fails to arrive, Odeh said, she and her son fill bottles from the sea. Over the 22 months since Israel launched its offensive, Gaza's water access has been progressively strained. Limits on fuel imports and electricity have hampered the operation of desalination plants, while infrastructure bottlenecks and pipeline damage choked delivery to a dribble. Gaza's aquifers became polluted by sewage and the wreckage of bombed buildings. Wells are mostly inaccessible or destroyed, aid groups and the local utility say. UNRWA — the UN agency for Palestinian refugees — said Thursday that its health centres now see an average of 10,300 patients a week with infectious diseases, mostly diarrhoea from contaminated water. Thirst is only growing as a heat wave bears down, with humidity and temperatures in Gaza soaring on Friday to 35 degrees. Mahmoud al-Dibs, a father displaced from Gaza City to Muwasi, dumped water over his head from a flimsy plastic bag — one of the vessels used to carry water in the camps. "Outside the tents it is hot and inside the tents, it is hot, so we are forced to drink this water wherever we go," he said. The few people still possessing rooftop tanks can't muster enough water to clean them, so what flows from their taps is yellow and unsafe, said Bushra Khalidi, an official with Oxfam, an aid group working in Gaza. Before the war, the coastal enclave's more than two million residents got their water from a patchwork of sources. Some was piped in by Mekorot, Israel's national water utility. Some came from desalination plants. Some was pulled from high-saline wells, and some imported in bottles. Every source has been jeopardised. Palestinians are relying more heavily on groundwater, which today makes up more than half of Gaza's supply. The well water has historically been brackish, but still serviceable for cleaning, bathing, or farming, according to Palestinian water officials and aid groups. Now people have to drink it. The effects of drinking unclean water don't always appear right away, said Mark Zeitoun, director general of the Geneva Water Hub, a policy institute. "Untreated sewage mixes with drinking water, and you drink that or wash your food with it, then you're drinking microbes and can get dysentery," Zeitoun said. "If you're forced to drink salty, brackish water, it just does your kidneys in, and then you're on dialysis for decades." In February, acute watery diarrhoea accounted for less than 20 per cent of reported illnesses in Gaza. By July, it had surged to 44 per cent, raising the risk of severe dehydration, according to UNICEF, the UN children's agency. After waking early to stand in line for an hour under the August heat, Rana Odeh returns to her tent with her jug of murky water. She wipes the sweat from her brow and strategises how much to portion out to her two small children. From its colour alone, she knows full well it's likely contaminated. Thirst supersedes the fear of illness. She fills small bottles for her son and daughter and pours a sip into a teacup for herself. What's left she adds to a jerrycan for later. "We are forced to give it to our children because we have no alternative," said Odeh, who was driven from her home in Khan Younis. "It causes diseases for us and our children." Such scenes have become the grim routine in Muwasi, a sprawling displacement camp in central Gaza where hundreds of thousands endure scorching summer heat. Sweat-soaked and dust-covered, parents and children chase down water trucks that come every two or three days, filling bottles, canisters and buckets and then hauling them home, sometimes on donkey-drawn carts. Each drop is rationed for drinking, cooking, cleaning or washing. Some reuse what they can and save a couple of cloudy inches in their jerrycans for whatever tomorrow brings — or doesn't. When water fails to arrive, Odeh said, she and her son fill bottles from the sea. Over the 22 months since Israel launched its offensive, Gaza's water access has been progressively strained. Limits on fuel imports and electricity have hampered the operation of desalination plants, while infrastructure bottlenecks and pipeline damage choked delivery to a dribble. Gaza's aquifers became polluted by sewage and the wreckage of bombed buildings. Wells are mostly inaccessible or destroyed, aid groups and the local utility say. UNRWA — the UN agency for Palestinian refugees — said Thursday that its health centres now see an average of 10,300 patients a week with infectious diseases, mostly diarrhoea from contaminated water. Thirst is only growing as a heat wave bears down, with humidity and temperatures in Gaza soaring on Friday to 35 degrees. Mahmoud al-Dibs, a father displaced from Gaza City to Muwasi, dumped water over his head from a flimsy plastic bag — one of the vessels used to carry water in the camps. "Outside the tents it is hot and inside the tents, it is hot, so we are forced to drink this water wherever we go," he said. The few people still possessing rooftop tanks can't muster enough water to clean them, so what flows from their taps is yellow and unsafe, said Bushra Khalidi, an official with Oxfam, an aid group working in Gaza. Before the war, the coastal enclave's more than two million residents got their water from a patchwork of sources. Some was piped in by Mekorot, Israel's national water utility. Some came from desalination plants. Some was pulled from high-saline wells, and some imported in bottles. Every source has been jeopardised. Palestinians are relying more heavily on groundwater, which today makes up more than half of Gaza's supply. The well water has historically been brackish, but still serviceable for cleaning, bathing, or farming, according to Palestinian water officials and aid groups. Now people have to drink it. The effects of drinking unclean water don't always appear right away, said Mark Zeitoun, director general of the Geneva Water Hub, a policy institute. "Untreated sewage mixes with drinking water, and you drink that or wash your food with it, then you're drinking microbes and can get dysentery," Zeitoun said. "If you're forced to drink salty, brackish water, it just does your kidneys in, and then you're on dialysis for decades." In February, acute watery diarrhoea accounted for less than 20 per cent of reported illnesses in Gaza. By July, it had surged to 44 per cent, raising the risk of severe dehydration, according to UNICEF, the UN children's agency.
