Wanted to get aid supplies

Hamas: 12 people presumed drowned off Gaza

An airplane drops humanitarian aid over the northern Gaza Strip.(Bild: AP)

According to Islamist Hamas, twelve Palestinians drowned in the sea off the coast of the Gaza Strip after aid packages were dropped from airplanes.

They had been trying to reach parcels that had fallen into the sea off a beach in the northern part of the coastal area, the media office of the Hamas-controlled government said on Tuesday.

The incident, which could not be independently verified, is said to have occurred on Monday afternoon. Eyewitnesses said some of those who drowned were unable to swim, while others became entangled in the ropes tying the packages together.

A handout photo taken and published by the British Ministry of Defense shows humanitarian aid being dropped over Gaza.(Bild: APA/AFP/MOD/Leah JONES)

Aid deliveries are very sparse 
In the northern Gaza Strip, the plight of the civilian population in the Gaza war, which has been going on for more than five months, is particularly great. Only a small number of aid supplies are arriving there by land because Israel is keeping the border crossings in the north of the Gaza Strip closed. Within the coastal area, in turn, the journey for trucks is very dangerous due to fighting and anarchic conditions.

Airlift alone is not enough
The USA, Jordan and other countries have been dropping aid from military aircraft for over a month. Germany also joined the initiative in mid-March. However, aid organizations point out that an airlift of this kind cannot replace the transport of relief supplies by land. The war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre carried out by terrorists from Hamas and other extremist Palestinian organizations on 7 October in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip.