Jordan conducts 5 aid airdrops into Gaza amid Israeli siege

By Laith Junaidi

AMMAN, Jordan (AA) – Jordan carried out five airdrops of humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday, in cooperation with three countries.

A military statement said the airdrops were conducted in several sites in the northern Gaza Strip.

The operation involved aircraft from Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Germany, the statement said.

The Jordanian army has conducted 62 airdrops since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip last October, in addition to 104 airdrops carried out jointly with other countries.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed.

More than 32,500 Palestinians have since been killed and over 74,900 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on Gaza, leaving its population, particularly residents of the north, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war, now in its 174th day, has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala