France and Jordan airdrop aid to Gaza

France and Jordan teamed up to airdrop seven tons of aid to civilians and aid workers in Gaza, President Emmanuel Macron said Friday. (X/@EmmanuelMacron)
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Updated 06 January 2024
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France and Jordan airdrop aid to Gaza

  • Macron’s office said the “extremely complex operation” took place late Thursday

PARIS: France and Jordan teamed up to airdrop seven tons of aid to civilians and aid workers in Gaza, President Emmanuel Macron said Friday, as Israel continued to bomb the Palestinian territory.
“In a difficult context, France and Jordan delivered aid by air to the population and those aiding them,” Macron wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“The humanitarian situation remains critical in Gaza” after three months of conflict, he added.

The French leader posted a photograph of an airman standing on the cargo ramp of a military plane, with parachutes visible in the sky below.
Macron’s office said the “extremely complex operation” took place late Thursday, saying it had been made possible by close ties between the French and Jordanian militaries.
Each nation sent a C-130 transport plane with mixed French-Jordanian crews, bringing a total of seven tons of “humanitarian and health” aid, the presidency said.
At least 22,600 people have been killed in Gaza in Israel’s response to the October 7 attack by militant group Hamas, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
The United Nations estimates that 1.9 million Gazans — 85 percent of the pre-war population — have been displaced, with hundreds of thousands risking famine and most hospitals out of action.
There are serious shortages of food, water, fuel and medicines despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding deliveries of humanitarian aid.
In Gaza, “a quarter of the population is (facing) catastrophic levels of hunger,” World Food Programme chief economist Arif Husain told the New Yorker on Wednesday.
The supplies dropped by France and Jordan were equipped with systems that remotely guided them to a Jordanian field hospital operating in the territory, the French presidency said.
Thursday’s mission “allows us to show that such operations are possible,” the Elysee added, without saying whether it would be repeated.

 


Gaza civil defense says Israeli strikes kill at least 5

Updated 4 sec ago
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Gaza civil defense says Israeli strikes kill at least 5

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense ministry said Israeli strikes killed at least five people on Friday.
Violence has continued in the Palestinian territory despite a US-brokered truce that entered its second phase last month, with Israel and Hamas trading accusations of violating the agreement.
The civil defense agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authorities, told AFP that an air strike in the early hours of Friday morning killed at least two people and seriously injured one in central Gaza.
A drone strike in the south of the strip shortly after midnight killed three and injured several more people, the agency added.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, which took effect on October 10, Israeli troops withdrew to positions behind a so-called “Yellow Line,” though they remain in control of more than half of the territory.
Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authorities, has previously said at least 601 people had been killed since the truce began.
The Israeli military says at least four of its soldiers have been killed in the same period.
Media restrictions and limited access in Gaza have prevented AFP from independently verifying casualty figures or freely covering the fighting.