Officials from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip said five people were killed and 10 injured during a humanitarian airdrop Friday in the northern section of the Palestinian enclave.

The parachutes didn’t properly deploy, which caused some of the falling packages to strike civilians in the drop zone. The people were taken to Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital for treatment, the emergency room’s head nurse, Mohammed al-Sheikh, told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

It wasn’t immediately clear which country staged the airdrop. The U.S. is among several countries that have dropped humanitarian relief into Gaza amid warnings from the U.N. that the besieged Gaza Strip is on the brink of famine as a result of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said the international community should pressure Israel to grant unimpeded humanitarian land access into Gaza.

“Other options are not enough. Airdrops are good but insufficient; sea corridors are needed but take time. And time is of the essence,” Mr. Borrell wrote on X.

• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.