This is not relief, it is humiliation.
The words come from 32-year-old Uday al-Qaraan in Gaza, who in a video clip stands in front of a gathering of people rummaging through the remains of a shipment dropped from an airplane.
A few days later, a large crowd runs towards a new shipment with several heavy, parachute-equipped pallets falling from the sky. In the tumult, a man is killed when he is hit by the pallets. It turns out to be Uday al-Qaraan, who leaves two children behind.
Parachutes get tangled
By examining six different videos of the incident, Sky News has been able to establish that the whole thing took place at a tent camp in central Gaza around lunchtime on August 4.
In one of the clips, it can be seen that a total of twelve pallets were dropped, and that these got tangled up in each other on the way down and fell in pairs.
According to a witness who Sky News has spoken to, Uday ran forward towards one of the shipments, but did not see that it had gotten tangled up with another, which fell over him. The commotion at the site was probably intensified by the fact that several shots were fired on the occasion, which can be heard in another clip.
When the shipments reached the ground, chaos broke out as everyone on site tried to get hold of the food that had been delivered.
Landed in forbidden sea
The scene above is not the only time that these drops have caused danger to life. Just the day before, video clips show how the parachute belonging to a pallet is torn, while another has not unfolded at all and is plummeting at high speed towards a densely populated area.
In the investigation, Sky News has verified video clips from the aid shipments – one per day – that were dropped during eight days. On four of these occasions, different forms of malfunctions and accidents with the parachutes were recorded.
Another example of a dangerous situation was when the pallets on July 29 ended up a bit out at sea and got people to take to boats, which should be seen against the background that the Israeli military has introduced a total ban for Palestinians to enter the sea.
Besides the dangers, the method of airborne relief, which Israel began to allow again at the end of July in a Gaza marked by starvation and malnutrition, has been criticized for being ineffective.
According to statistics compiled by Sky News, Gaza received between July 27 and August 1, 38 tons of relief per day from the air, which covers seven percent of the shortage.
"Airborne humiliation"
A female relative of Uday al-Qaraan calls the drops "airborne humiliation of the people".
It creates problems between people and some die just to get a little food. And most do not get anything at all, they go hungry for more days, she says to the TV channel.
