The United States will participate “in the coming days” in humanitarian aid drops in the Gaza Strip besieged by the Israeli army, President Joe Biden said on Friday.
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“In the coming days, we will join our friends in Jordan and others in airdrops of food and other goods” on Gaza, said the American president while receiving the head of the Italian government Giorgia Meloni at the White House.
Referring to the killing Thursday during a distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza, where more than 110 people died, he spoke of a “tragic” event. “The loss of life is heartbreaking.”
AFP
Until now, the United States has not carried out such aid drops, judging their effectiveness to be limited.
But while the Gaza Strip is, according to the UN, threatened with famine and awaiting a ceasefire agreement which would allow more aid to arrive, the United States has visibly evolved on the subject.
The American president once again took Israel to task, calling on the country’s authorities to let more humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“We are going to insist to Israel that it facilitates the entry of more trucks and that it increases the access routes to Gaza (…) There is really not enough aid reaching Gaza,” he said.
Jordan has carried out several operations to drop humanitarian and medical aid since the start of the war on October 7 between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, intended in particular for a Jordanian field hospital in the north of the Palestinian territory.
Making another slip of the tongue, Joe Biden spoke of aid drops on Ukraine, in conflict with Russia, and not on Gaza.
His advisers were quick to point out that he was talking about the Palestinian territory.