Biden announced that the US military will deliver food to Gaza by air

(Patria) - US President Joe Biden announced plans for military air delivery of food and supplies to Gaza, a day after the deaths of Palestinians in an aid queue shed light on the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the territory.

Biden said the delivery would take place in the coming days, but offered no further details. Other countries, including Jordan and France, have already carried out aid drops in Gaza, RSE reports.

At least 576,000 people in the Gaza Strip, a quarter of the enclave's population, are on the brink of starvation, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Gaza health authorities said Israeli forces killed more than 100 people trying to reach an aid convoy near Gaza the previous day.

Palestinians face an increasingly desperate situation nearly five months after the war that began with Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7 last year, an attack that the US and EU designate as a terrorist organization.

Israel blamed the crowd for most of the deaths, saying the victims were trampled.

An Israeli official said soldiers "in a limited response" later fired on a crowd they considered a threat.

The United Nations says it faces "enormous obstacles" in providing aid. However, questions are being raised about the effectiveness of air drops in Gaza.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said air drops would have only a limited impact on the suffering of people in Gaza.

The United Nations delivered aid to besieged northern Gaza yesterday for the first time in seven days. Medicines, vaccines, and fuel were delivered to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

The World Food Programme announced ten days ago that it was pausing food aid deliveries to northern Gaza until conditions in the Palestinian enclave allowed for safe distribution.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said yesterday that in February, an average of almost 97 trucks entered Gaza each day, compared to about 150 trucks per day in January, adding that "the number of trucks entering Gaza remains significantly below the target of 500 per day."

Attacks on Gaza have been ongoing since October 7 in response to Hamas's attack on Israel.

The area has suffered significant destruction and has been isolated from the rest of the territory for months.

Humanitarian groups say it has become almost impossible to deliver humanitarian aid to most of Gaza. The UN says a quarter of Gaza's 2.3 million Palestinians face starvation.