EU says Gaza to get aid by sea as airdrop ends in deaths

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES — An international effort gathered pace on Friday to get desperately needed humanitarian relief into Gaza by sea, in the latest bid to counter overland access restrictions blamed on Israel as it battles Hamas militants.

The dire conditions more than five months into the war have led some countries to airdrop food and other assistance over the besieged Gaza Strip, but a parachute malfunction turned the latest operation lethal.

Five Palestinians were killed and 10 wounded north of the coastal Al-Shati refugee camp, said Mohammed al-Sheikh, emergency room head nurse at Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital.

A witness told AFP he and his brother followed the parachuted aid in the hope of getting "a bag of flour".

"Then, all of a sudden, the parachute didn't open and fell down like a rocket," hitting a house, said Mohammed al-Ghoul.

Both Jordan's military and a US defence official denied that aircraft from either country caused the fatalities.

The airdrop was also carried out in partnership with Belgium, Egypt, France and the Netherlands.

In the Cypriot port of Larnaca, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen expressed hope that a maritime corridor could open this Sunday, though crucial details of the planned operation remained unclear.

She said that "an initial pilot operation" would be launched on Friday, and the United Arab Emirates had helped activate the corridor "by securing the first of many shipments of goods to the people of Gaza".

Her announcement came after US President Joe Biden, in Thursday's annual State of the Union address, said that the US military would establish a "temporary pier" off Gaza's coast to bring in aid.

On Friday, Biden told reporters that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must allow in more aid.

"Yes he does," he said when asked if Netanyahu needed to do more to let relief into the Palestinian territory.

The United Nations has repeatedly warned of looming famine in the long-blockaded Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli siege since the Hamas attack of October 7 triggered the war.

UN agencies have urged increased overland access, insisting that air or sea delivery was ineffective.

Biden admitted that