Humanitarian aid to Gaza: the American president increases pressure on the Israeli government
The United States has announced its participation in the international effort to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
These announcements are coupled with increasingly pressing demands on the Israeli government.
The American president who is openly annoyed by the attitude of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but still supports him.
US President Joe Biden during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023 (Illustrative image).
AP - Evan Vucci
By: RFI Follow
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“
Humanitarian aid cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip
,” Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his
State of the Union speech
this Thursday. evening.
An exchange between the American President and a senator also took place aside, but a microphone recorded it.
We hear Joe Biden getting annoyed with the Israeli Prime Minister, whom he asks to let humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“
He will have to realize this
,” the American president said in substance about Benyamin Netanyahu.
Read alsoGaza Strip: a “maritime corridor” project and questions
Under pressure from a part of American public opinion outraged by the war in Gaza, Joe Biden is committing his administration and the American army to humanitarian operations with uncertain results at a time when the president must recognize that the truce he announced as imminent a week ago is still not there.
But if Joe Biden's patience is running out, the American president in the campaign does not question his country's military support for the Jewish state, in the form of arms deliveries.
In a letter this week, 37 elected Democrats urge the Biden administration to use “
all the tools at its disposal
” to ensure that American weapons are not used in an Israeli assault on Rafah, where more than half of the population of Gaza is trapped on the closed border with Egypt.
Five dead because of these humanitarian airdrops
Faced with the need of a population which has been suffering attacks from the Israeli army for more than five months now - and while the Israeli authorities refuse to open more crossing points to bring humanitarian aid into the Strip Gaza, the United States and even France are participating in
airdrops of aid
.
These operations coordinated by the Jordanian Air Force reportedly caused their first casualties this week: five people were killed by a drop of humanitarian aid on Gaza.
This tragedy was confirmed by images posted on social networks showing a package whose parachutes were not open and which crashed into a house.
How do these drops take place?
And what measures are being taken to reduce the risks?
According to the sources consulted by RFI, these humanitarian aid airdrop operations are subject to preparation and coordination between the different countries participating in them.
The targeted drop zones are coastal, mainly beaches, that is to say the places where there are the fewest homes to avoid any problems.
Packages of two tonnes maximum
The packages that are dropped do not exceed two tons and, in the case of the French army, they are attached to five parachutes.
Parachutes connected by a line to the plane, which means that their opening, once released, is automatic.
Beforehand, and to once again minimize the risks, numerous data are taken into account, notably wind speed.
These drops are carried out at low altitude, again to reduce the margins of error.
If a French plane, a C-130, has carried out six humanitarian aid drop operations since January 4, mainly with food, it is far from being the only one operating in this area.
American and Jordanian planes are also participating in this operation led by Amman, which also counts with the cooperation of the United Arab Emirates.
Countries which, like France, reject any responsibility for the death of the five Palestinians during an airdrop of humanitarian aid this week.
As the
New York Times
notes about the airdrops of humanitarian aid in a territory, where American-made bombs also fall: it is both life and death that the United States is raining down in the sky of Gaza.
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