12 Palestinians Drown Trying to Retrieve Aid From Sea

Twelve people including a UNRWA worker drowned trying to reach aid dropped by plane off a Gaza beach, amid growing fears of famine nearly six months into Israel's aggression on the besieged strip.

According to Palestinian health authorities, crowds of people ran towards the beach, in Beit Lahia in north Gaza, as crates with parachutes floated down, then people standing deep in water and bodies being pulled onto the sand.

Meanwhile, Humanitarian agencies affirm that deliveries by air or sea directly onto Hamas-run Gaza's beaches are no substitute for increased supplies coming in by land via Israel or Egypt.

Hamas also has called on Western countries to end airdrops of aid into Gaza, warning that the humanitarian delivery method is “offensive, wrong, inappropriate and useless.” Hamas has from the outset been critical of airdrops, describing them as “useless” and “not the best way to bring aid in.”

Last week, the United Nations food agency said that shipments of animal feed to sustain milk-producing cows were blocked at the border into Gaza for months as Israel pressed its offensive against Hamas militants in the besieged Palestinian enclave.