Gaza aid airdrop kills 5 as parachute fails to open

Five people died and several others injured after a parachute airdropping humanitarian aid into Gaza failed to open.

According to Al Jazeera, a pallet carried by the parachute crashed into a group of civilians who had queued for food north of Gaza City's Shati refugee camp.

Following the incident, the Gaza government media office denounced the airdrops as "flashy propaganda rather than humanitarian service". It advocated for the aid to pass through land borders.

"We previously warned it poses a threat to the lives of citizens in the Gaza Strip and this is what happened today when the parcels fell on the citizens' heads," the Gaza government media office said in a statement.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported last month that at least half a million, or one in four people in Gaza, feared famine.

The deaths took place as the enclave was gripped by a famine. It brought attention to the difficulty of delivering much-needed humanitarian aid into Gaza in the face of Israeli restrictions. The main UN organization in Gaza, UNRWA, claims that since January 23, Israeli authorities have forbidden them from transporting supplies to the northern part of the strip, Al Jazeera reported.