US denies its plane involved in airdrop aid incident in Gaza, resulting in 5 Palestinians’ deaths

By Mustafa Haboush

ISTANBUL (AA) – The US denied involvement on Saturday in the killing of five Palestinians who were waiting for much-needed humanitarian aid when several parachutes dropped from a plane failed to open northwest of Gaza City on Friday.

“We are aware of reports of civilians killed as a result of humanitarian airdrops,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.

“Contrary to some reports, this was not the result of U.S. airdrops,” it added.

CENTCOM extended “sympathies to the families of those who were killed.”

The Palestinian Civil Defense Service announced on Friday that five people were killed and several others were injured by airdropped aid boxes in Gaza City after several parachutes failed to open properly.

For more than a week, Arab countries, including Egypt, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Jordan, Qatar, Sultanate of Oman, and Bahrain, have been conducting joint operations to drop food aid on the Gaza Strip, in addition to similar operations carried out by the US.

Israel has launched a retaliatory offensive on Gaza since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7. The offensive has killed more than 30,800 victims and injured nearly 73,000 others amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

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

About 85% of Gazans have been displaced by the Israeli onslaught 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, which in 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 Ikram Kouachi