Biden said the United States plans to press Israel to allow more aid trucks into Gaza.
President of the United States Joe Biden according to the US plans to send aid to the Gaza Strip by airdrops. He told reporters at the White House that airlifts will begin in the next few days.
Biden promised that the United States plans to demand that its ally Israel also allow more aid trucks into the region.
– The aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere near sufficient. Innocent lives are at risk, and children are at risk, Biden added.
At the press conference, Biden indicated several times that aid cuts would go to Ukraine, but the White House later clarified that Biden meant Gaza.
The White House and the US Department of State and Defense have been considering airdrops of aid to Gaza for months. However, the plans have not been carried forward due to the challenges of their implementation.
Israel supports the plan
According to the UN, around a hundred people died on Thursday after Israeli soldiers opened fire on people who had gathered to seek aid. The course of events is still being investigated, and the number of victims is not yet completely clear.
– Yesterday’s events underlined, especially for the president, that there is a need to find alternative routes, spokesperson for the National Security Council of the White House John Kirby said.
According to Kirby, Israel supports the US plan to drop aid to Gaza.
– The Israelis have tried airdrops themselves and support our efforts to do the same, Kirby said.
Drops to supplement ground transportation
Kirby said that ground deliveries to Gaza would continue and that any airdrops would complement the ground deliveries. According to Kirby, the implementation of airdrops must be planned carefully.
“There are few military operations that would be more complex than airdrops of humanitarian aid,” said Kirby.
According to Kirby and Biden, the United States would like to open an aid route to Gaza also by sea.
Only more than 2,300 aid trucks have reached the Gaza area during February, UNRWA, the UN aid organization for Palestinian refugees, said this week. This is half less than in January. According to the organization, hundreds of trucks should be sent to the area every day in order for the aid to be sufficient.
The UN has estimated that famine threatens more than two million people in Gaza, i.e. almost the entire population of the region.
Sources: AFP, Reuters, AP