US Airdrops Aid to Gaza

American cargo planes airdropped more than 36,000 meals to Gaza in a joint operation with Jordan, the US military said, as the international community scrambles to curb a growing humanitarian crisis there.

Airdrops by the United States and other countries are aimed at supplementing what officials say is an insufficient supply of aid being brought in by ground to Gaza, where the United Nations has warned that famine is "almost inevitable."

"US C-130s dropped over 36,800 US and Jordanian meal equivalents in Northern Gaza, an area of great need, allowing for civilian access to the critical aid," CENTCOM said, adding that "we continue planning for follow-on aid delivery missions."

Gaza has faced relentless bombardment by Israel since Hamas launched a cross-border attack on October 7 that resulted in about 1,160 deaths, most of them civilians.

Israel's retaliatory offensive in Hamas-controlled Gaza has killed more than 30,600 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory's health ministry.

The amount of aid brought into Gaza by truck has plummeted during nearly five months of war, and Gazans are facing dire shortages of food, water and medicine.

Gaza health officials said Israeli forces opened fire into the crowd, causing a "massacre," while Israel's army said most victims were trampled or hit by trucks in a crush for food aid.

A Hamas official said that talks seeking a pause in its war with Israel cannot go on "indefinitely", after US President Joe Biden called on the group to accept a ceasefire deal.

"We will not allow the path of negotiations to be open indefinitely while the aggression and the war of starvation against our people continues," Osama Hamdan told a news conference in Beirut.