“We delivered the four pallets precisely from a height of around 1,000 meters,” writes the Bundeswehr in the short message service X. The next delivery for the starving Palestinians in the embattled Gaza Strip is planned for this Sunday. On Wednesday, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius gave the green light for the Bundeswehr to participate in the airlift. Pistorius also thanked the German soldiers in the online service X for quickly carrying out their mission.
For the operation, the Bundeswehr relocated two C-130 transport aircraft stationed in France to Jordan. The Arab country initiated the airlift. Other partners such as the USA are already taking part. Each of the German machines can transport up to 18 tons of load. To ensure that there are no complications in the airspace over the Gaza Strip, the drops are closely coordinated with Israel.
For the Bundeswehr, dropping supplies by parachute from Hercules aircraft is a novelty, i.e. new territory, as the Air Force writes on X. Preparations for the first mission in cooperation with France have been underway in Jordan since early Saturday morning.
A Bundeswehr soldier and a Frenchman prepare to deliver aid to the Palestinians. Image: Luftwaffe/Sherifa Kästner/Bundeswehr/dpa/picture alliance
International aid organizations agree that air supplies only represent a fraction of the help needed. The Foreign Office in Berlin said on
The starving Palestinians are also to be supplied with relief supplies via a newly established maritime corridor. The first nearly 200 tons of food were unloaded this Saturday from a barge belonging to the Spanish non-governmental organization of the same name, “Open Arms,” on the coast of the Gaza Strip, according to a US aid organization involved in the mission. The barge had been towed to a pier in the southwest of Gaza city. There the load was distributed among twelve trucks. The “Open Arms” left the port of Larnaca on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus on Tuesday.
A second ship is currently being loaded with aid supplies for the Gaza Strip in the port of Larnaca. Image: Petros Karadjias/AP Photo/picture alliance
The food delivered will be used to prepare meals for the residents of the northern Gaza Strip. The situation there is particularly precarious.
After a visit to the site, a United Nations (UN) representative spoke of a “nightmare” that was much more than a humanitarian crisis. “Doctors report that they are no longer seeing normal-sized babies,” said Dominic Allen of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Geneva on Friday.
In general, the situation of the more than 2.2 million civilians in the sealed-off coastal strip is catastrophic. There is a lack of everything – not just food, but also shelters, medical care and sanitation facilities.
Scholz flies to Jordan and Israel
Improving supplies for the Palestinians – after five months of war between Israel and the militant Islamist Hamas – is also the topic of a trip by Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Jordan and Israel. Scholz is flying to the Jordanian capital Amman this Saturday. Before his departure, the Chancellor said in Berlin: “We are concerned about the further progress of military development.” There is a risk that a comprehensive Israeli offensive in Rafah will result in “a lot of terrible civilian casualties.” This must be avoided at all costs.
Israel prepares for offensive in Rafah
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved plans for an offensive in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday. There are more than a million Palestinian refugees in the city.
Terrorists from Hamas and other groups attacked southern Israel on October 7th, murdering 1,160 people and kidnapping more than 250 people as hostages in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli armed forces responded with massive air strikes and a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, more than 31,500 Palestinians have been killed and over 73,000 injured since the war began. The numbers cannot be independently verified. The Palestinian Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the USA, the EU and other countries.
se/jj/ust (dpa, afp, rtr)
This article will no longer be updated. Editorial deadline: 4 p.m