Israel’s military says aid airdrops to begin in Gaza
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The Israeli military has intercepted a Gaza-bound aid ship, detaining 21 international activists and journalists and seizing all cargo, including baby formula, food, and medicine, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.
As starvation rises in Gaza, prompting global outrage, Israel’s military said it would restart airborne aid delivery there and make land deliveries less dangerous.
Facing growing international condemnation over Palestinians starving to death in Gaza, Israel’s military is making a series of moves that it says will allow more aid into the enclave. Follow for live updates.
Plus: Hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks trying to reach food, mostly in mass shootings by Israeli soldiers.
Israel has long restricted or completely blocked aid to Gaza on the argument that Hamas steals it to use as a weapon of control over the population.
United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher has demanded that Israel provide evidence for its accusations that staff with the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs were affiliated with Palestinian militants Hamas,
Gazans are in desperate need of essentials after more than 21 months of war, but efforts to get aid into the Palestinian territory - and to its hungry residents - face major obstacles.
The foreign ministers of 25 Western nations have slammed Israel for “drip feeding” aid into the Gaza Strip, as the health ministry in the territory said that more than 1,000 people have been killed seeking humanitarian relief there since late May.