Biden announced the delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip by air

US President Joe Biden announced that American planes will deliver food to the Gaza Strip. The first delivery is expected this weekend.

“We have to do more, and the United States will do more,” Biden said, adding that not enough aid is coming to Gaza now. He also said that the US is considering the possibility of opening a sea corridor for humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.

The representative of the White House on national security, John Kirby, clarified that the first air shipment, most likely, will be military dry rations (Meal, Ready-to-Eat – ready-to-eat food). Kirby added that the air delivery of aid will be a “permanent event” and that Israel supports it.

Previously, Jordan and France had already delivered air aid to the Gaza Strip. A few days earlier, the UN World Food Program announced that it was suspending food deliveries to Gaza due to looting and attacks on program staff by Palestinians. According to the UN, more than 570 thousand residents of Gaza – about a quarter of its total population – are on the brink of starvation.

US and UN officials with whom Reuters spoke note that air deliveries will not solve the problem (in particular, there is no guarantee that food will not fall into the hands of the Hamas group, which controls the Gaza Strip), and hope for the opening of land corridors.

The United States and other countries expect that the amount of aid to the residents of Gaza can be increased during the cease-fire period, which should begin by March 10, Biden said.

• Israel launched a ground operation in the Gaza Strip in response to the attack by Hamas, recognized by the US and the EU as a terrorist attack, on Israel on October 7, 2023. Then more than 1,200 people died in Israel, more than 250 were taken hostage and taken to the Gaza Strip. Some prisoners were later killed.
• Since the beginning of the war, the needs of the residents of the Gaza Strip for humanitarian aid have increased, and the possibilities of its delivery have narrowed. According to The Guardian, the amount of aid fell by 80%. International agencies have repeatedly warned that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe, that there is a direct threat of famine and epidemics.