The Biden administration announced the U.S. will begin air-dropping aid to Gaza in the coming days to improve the conditions for Palestinians amid Hamas’ ongoing conflict with Israel—news that comes as a cease-fire agreement becomes seemingly less likely to occur soon.
A parachute carries humanitarian aid dropped by a Jordanian military aircraft (not pictured) over ... [+]
In addition to air-dropping food and supplies, Biden said his administration is going to “insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people (in Gaza) the help they need.”
U.S. officials had been considering air-dropping aid into Gaza “for days,” according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the aid deliveries, but some officials questioned whether it was “an effective way to address the humanitarian crisis,” the Journal reported.
The U.S. is following in the footsteps of the Jordanian Air Force, which began dropping aid into Gaza earlier this week, according to a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, from King Abdullah II.
Biden and other White House officials have repeatedly said the deteriorating conditions in Gaza need to be addressed, with the president discussing the need to “surge humanitarian assistance into Gaza” with Qatar leaders Thursday.
“Aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough,” Biden said Friday when announcing the aid. “I won’t stand by, we won’t let up … we’re going to pull out every stop we can to get more assistance in.”
576,000. That’s how many people in Gaza—about one-quarter of the population—were “one step away from famine” as of Tuesday, according to the United Nations.