President Joe Biden said the US will start dropping humanitarian aid into Ukraine before correcting himself and saying it would go to the Gaza Strip.
The announcement comes a day after hundreds of Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in a rush to get food from an aid convoy.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, at least 576,000 people in the Gaza Strip – a quarter of the population – are one step away from famine.
Biden said during an Oval Office meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni that the food drops would arrive in the coming days. He noted that he was playing Ray Charles’ “Georgia on My Mind” as the Italian Prime Minister entered the Oval Office.
Members of the Jordanian Armed Forces are dropping aid packages along the Gaza coast, in coordination with Egypt, Qatar, France and the UAE – the US will join the airdrops in the coming days, President Biden announced
“We will discuss the Middle East and yesterday’s tragic and alarming event in northern Gaza in an effort to get humanitarian aid there,” he said.
“The loss of life is heartbreaking. People are so desperate that innocent people were caught up in a terrible war and were unable to feed their families. You saw the reaction when they tried to get help.”
“We must do more and the United States will do more.”
Then he started talking about Ukraine: “In the coming days, we will be working with our friends in Jordan and others to provide airdrops of additional food and supplies to Ukraine and to continue to try to open other routes to Ukraine, including the possibility of a marine corridor to deliver large amounts of humanitarian aid.”
Biden then caught himself and said it was aid to Gaza: ‘In addition to expanding land deliveries, as I said, we’re going to push for Israel to facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the aid they need. need. No excuses, because the truth is that the flow of aid into Gaza now is not nearly enough – it is not nearly enough. Innocent lives are at stake, and the lives of children are at stake, too.”
He also said they hope to know “soon” whether a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas can be worked out.
“We are trying to work out a deal between Israel and Hamas – the hostages being returned and the immediate ceasefire in Gaza for at least the next six weeks, and to allow the flow of aid to the entire Gaza Strip, not just to the south. the president said.
President Joe Biden meets with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the Oval Office; Biden said he welcomed her with Ray Charles’ ‘Georgia on my Mind’
Humanitarian aid is being dropped by Jordanian forces into the war-torn Gaza region
The aid announcement comes as the government faces mounting pressure at home and abroad to do more to rein in Israel and help the suffering Palestinian people.
More than a hundred people were killed in Gaza on Thursday after Israeli forces shot at a mass stampede on a food convoy.
That brings the death toll to more than 30,000 since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, after Hamas forces attacked Israel.
Arab countries were quick to condemn Thursday’s violence. Biden said it could make it harder to negotiate a ceasefire. Israel said its forces fired after the crowd approached the food convoy in a threatening manner.
Aid groups say it has become nearly impossible to deliver supplies to most of Gaza because of the difficulty of coordinating with the Israeli military.
Reports say people are eating fodder and even cacti, and doctors say children are dying in hospitals from malnutrition and dehydration.
Jordan, meanwhile, has already begun airdrops of aid in the war-torn region, in coordination with Egypt, Qatar, France and the UAE.
U.S. officials warn that airdrops for aid will have only a limited impact, as a U.S. military aircraft can only drop the equivalent of the amount of aid that one or two relief trucks can carry.
If conditions allow, up to 250 aid trucks can enter the region every day.
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike during a military operation in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip
Biden had previously expressed hope that a deal would be struck on Monday. He said Thursday that seemed unlikely.
“Hope gives life,” he said. ‘I was on the phone with people from the region. Probably not by Monday, but I’m hopeful.’
