Israel-Gaza war: US vows to plough on with Gaza airdrops despite deaths, Hamas plea to stop

Six people were reportedly killed in stampedes and 12 others drowned off the territory’s Mediterranean coast trying to salvage aid packages

Hamas has demanded that Israel allow more aid trucks to enter Gaza instead. Aid agencies say all 2.4 million people in Gaza need humanitarian help

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Humanitarian aid is seen being airdropped from a military aircraft over the Gaza Strip. Photo: Jordanian Army via AFP

Published: 3:02pm, 27 Mar 2024Updated: 3:03pm, 27 Mar 2024

The United States says it will continue airdrops of aid to besieged Gaza, despite pleas from Hamas to stop the practice after it said 18 people had died trying to reach food packages.

Hamas demanded that its enemy Israel instead allow more aid trucks to enter the war-torn territory, which the United Nations has warned is on the brink of a “man-made famine” after nearly six months of war.

Fighting raged unabated on Tuesday, a day after the UN Security Council passed its first resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” and urging the release of the roughly 130 hostages Israel says remain in Gaza, including 34 captives who are presumed dead.

Displaced Palestinian children play between their tents on a swing in the Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah, as Israeli air strikes continue. Photo: dpa

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said 12 people including some children were killed when an air strike hit a displacement camp late on Tuesday near the southern city of Khan Yunis.

And Israeli forces were continuing an assault on Gaza City’s largest hospital, and their forces have surrounded two other medical facilities in Khan Yunis.

The Palestinian Red Crescent warned that thousands were trapped in the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis and “their lives are in danger”.

The war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel has shattered Gaza’s infrastructure and aid agencies say all of its 2.4 million people are now in need of humanitarian help.