ISTANBUL
A 14-year-old Palestinian boy was killed and several people were injured Saturday when an aid box dropped by air fell on them in central Gaza, marking the fourth such fatal accident in recent days, medical sources said.
The sources told Anadolu that Muhannad Eid died after being struck in the head by a box in the Al-Nuwairi Hill area, west of the Nuseirat refugee camp. He was taken to Al-Awda Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The exact number of injured was not immediately available.
Saturday’s tragedy follows three similar incidents since multiple countries began parachuting aid into Gaza on July 16, amid an Israeli blockade that has pushed the enclave into famine.
In the early hours of the same day, another Palestinian died from injuries sustained a day earlier when a box hit him in Gaza City’s Al-Yarmouk area. On Monday, a nurse was killed when a box crashed onto his tent in Al-Zawaida, while an 11-year-old boy died Wednesday in Khan Younis in the same way.
According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, at least 23 people have been killed and 124 others injured by falling aid boxes since October 2023.
The office said most packages have landed in areas under Israeli control or in neighborhoods forcibly emptied of residents, exposing anyone approaching them to the risk of being directly targeted. Previous drops, it added, have fallen into the sea, causing 13 drownings last year, or into crowded gatherings, making them both dangerous and ineffective.
It renewed calls for all humanitarian aid, particularly food, baby formula, medicines, and medical supplies, to be delivered safely and in sufficient quantities through land crossings.
Palestinian officials and humanitarian groups say air-drops are far less effective than land deliveries and have caused chaos, damage, and deaths.
Israel has kept all Gaza crossings closed since March 2, blocking aid convoys despite hundreds of trucks waiting at the border. Only small amounts have been allowed in, far below the level needed to avert famine.
The World Food Program says one-third of Gaza’s population has gone several days without eating, calling the situation “unprecedented” in its levels of hunger and desperation. The UN estimates hundreds of aid trucks must enter daily to end the famine caused by the Israeli blockade and war.
Israel has been facing mounting outrage over its deadly war on Gaza, where more than 61,300 people have been killed since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave and brought it to the verge of famine.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.