Aid airdropped over Gaza, one parachute fails to open
Middle EastAid packages were airdropped over Gaza on Saturday (March 9) with at least one parachute failing to open, Reuters reports.
It comes a day after, five Palestinians were killed and several were wounded when boxes of aid dropped by planes fell on them by mistake in northwest Gaza, according to a spokesman of the Civil Emergency Service in Gaza.
The drops come as time is rapidly running out for ceasefire talks to reach an agreement on a proposed six-week truce that Washington had hoped would be in place by Ramadan, expected to start on Sunday (March 10).
It was not immediately clear who conducted Saturday's airdrop.
Five Palestinians were killed and several were wounded when boxes of humanitarian aid dropped by planes fell on them by mistake in northwest Gaza on Friday, said Mahmoud Basal, spokesman of the Civil Emergency Service in Gaza.
US Centcom said on Saturday that they are aware of the deaths and that this was not the result of U.S. airdrops.
Airdropping supplies is known to be dangerous and difficult to target and the European Commission said on Friday it was hoping a maritime aid corridor could start operating between Cyprus and Gaza this weekend.
U.S. President Joe Biden announced plans for the U.S. military to build a "temporary pier" on Gaza's Mediterranean coast, amid U.N. warnings of famine among the territory's 2.3 million people.