AFP Gaza

Loop

Updated Friday, March 8, 2024-18:04

Five people died this Friday and another 10 were injured after being hit by humanitarian aid packages

dropped by planes over Gaza City

, according to hospital sources.

The victims were treated at the Al Chifa hospital in Gaza, as confirmed by Mohammed al Chiekh, head nurse of the emergency service at this establishment, who stated that the accident occurred in the Al Shati refugee camp, west of the city. from Gaza.

"When the planes started dropping cargo, my brother and I went to the area hoping to get a bag of flour," said Mohammed al-Ghoul, a 50-year-old man who lives in this camp near the sea. .

"But

the parachute did not open and the load fell like a rocket

on the roof of one of the houses," he explained, indicating that he then saw people carrying three corpses and saw wounded people among the people who had gathered on the roof to treat to get help.

For several days, the United States and other countries, such as Jordan and France, have been carrying out air shipments of food aid to the Gaza Strip besieged by Israel, mired in a major humanitarian crisis and threatened with famine, according to the United Nations.

"Israel uses the hunger of the Palestinians"

On the other hand, the

UN rapporteur

on the right to food,

Michael Fakhri

, has denounced that Israel is using the control it has over the entry of food into Gaza to obtain advantages in its negotiations with Hamas and "intentionally" pushing towards famine to the entire civilian population for this purpose.

"It must be said clearly that Israel is intentionally starving the Palestinian people in Gaza and that famine is already occurring or is just around the corner.

Never

in modern history have we seen an entire

civilian population

go into such a

situation .

of complete hunger so quickly

," he declared at a press conference.

The rapporteur stated that "Israel seeks concessions from Hamas and is offering to allow the entry of 500 trucks with humanitarian aid per day (the same amount as before the war), 200,000 tents and 60,000 caravans, the rehabilitation of bakeries and hospitals , but this is actually something that Israel is obliged to do under international law."

He has also maintained that no Palestinian in the Gaza Strip eats even enough and that at least half a million are already going hungry.

Among these victims there are

335,000 young children

at high risk of severe malnutrition, while 90% of minors suffer from an infectious disease and 70% from diarrhea, said Fakhri, who has denounced this situation before the Human Rights Council of the UN meeting in Geneva.

"Israel has

destroyed Gaza's entire food system

, poisoned the soil and wiped out 80% of the fishing sector, including small boats and their equipment. It has not allowed fishing since October 7 without explaining how simple fishermen could threaten it. artisanal", he stressed.

Fakhri, a Canadian jurist and academic, said the United States and the European Union are now rushing to open a maritime humanitarian corridor from the island of Cyprus to Gaza, while maintaining their political support for Israel and Washington continuing to supply it with weapons to continue bombing. to the Palestinians.

"I am trying to understand why the United States provides bombs, ammunition and financial support to a government that has declared its intention to starve civilians. This is more than an alliance, it is a marriage," he lamented in a meeting with members of the Association of UN Correspondents in Geneva.

The rapporteur recalled that during its

17 years of blockade

on Gaza, Israel

allowed the entry of 500 trucks a day

containing supplies calculated "to cover the minimum calories per person of the international population and not draw the attention of the international community to the situation." ".