Political ploy

 By Shahrokh Saei

U.S. airdrops food aid into Gaza to divert attention from “flour atrocity”

TEHRAN- The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has come under growing domestic and international pressure over the past days to reconsider its unwavering support for Israel’s deadly war on the Gaza Strip.

Pressure began to mount on the White House on Thursday after Israel perpetrated a massacre in a neighborhood in Gaza City. 

Israeli forces killed more than 100 Palestinians who were waiting for deliveries of food from a convoy of aid trucks that had arrived in the area.  Hundreds of others were injured. 

The Israeli army claimed it did not fire at the crowd but acknowledged that troops opened fire on several Palestinians. It said they had moved toward soldiers and endangered them. The regime also claimed that most of the fatalities were caused by a stampede as hungry Gazans tried to get supplies from the convoy. But Palestinians rejected Israel’s claim as baseless, accusing the regime of committing a “heinous massacre”.  

The head of a Gaza City hospital said more than 80% of those who sustained injuries had been hit by gunfire. 

The UN later said many of the people treated for injuries following the tragic event suffered gunshot wounds. 

According to The New York Times, eyewitnesses said Israeli tanks and other forces fired at the civilians who were waiting for food such as flour. Palestinians are referring to Thursday’s massacre as “flour atrocity”. 

The Israeli brutal crime in the Gaza City neighborhood drew global backlash from many officials and aid organizations.

The U.S., however, remains defiant in the face of increasing calls to condemn Israel for the massacre and drop support for the regime’s war in Gaza.  

Quoting unnamed American officials, NBC News said Biden remains unwilling to fundamentally shift his policy in support of Israel by attaching conditions to military assistance to the regime despite growing pressure.

“Massive policy failure”

Amid the fallout of Thursday’s massacre, UN warnings of famine and Israel’s deliberate blocking of food, water and other essentials to the Gaza Strip, the U.S. has tried to go on a charm offensive with the Palestinians.  

On Friday, Biden pointed to the massacre and said Washington would begin airdropping humanitarian relief supplies into Gaza. 

“The loss of life is heartbreaking…People are so desperate that innocent people got caught in a terrible war unable to feed their families and you saw the response when they tried to get aid in,” the U.S president said. 

 “And we need to do more and the United States will do more,” Biden added. “In the coming days, we are going to join with our friends in Jordan and others in providing airdrops of additional food and supplies [into Gaza].”

France, Egypt, Jordan and the UAE have already taken part in aid airdrops to Gaza, which shows that such operations are possible.

U.S. media also reported on Saturday that Washington has begun airdropping humanitarian aid into Gaza. They said three U.S. C-130s dropped humanitarian supplies over the city.   

But, the White House’s motives are different.

The Biden administration’s decision to airdrop food into Gaza is aimed at covering up its reluctance to use its leverage to force the Israeli regime to allow the delivery of food and end the war. 

The U.S. can exert pressure on Israel through the UN Security Council. However it has vetoed three resolutions that were aimed at establishing a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

It also blocked Algeria's request to the council demanding the body to issue a statement blaming Israel for the Thursday massacre in the Gaza City neighborhood.  

Washington’s huge military supplies and strong political support have emboldened Israel to continue its war on Gaza. Israel’s dependence on arms supplies is a powerful leverage that Washington has over Tel Aviv. 

A former director of the U.S. Agency for International Development has thrown a spotlight on Washington’s motives for resorting to the airdrop policy. 

“Airdrops are inefficient, expensive, dangerous, and only helpful when there are no other delivery options. Airdrops are primarily for the Biden administration’s benefit - to paper over a massive policy failure,” Dave Harden said on X. 

The UK-based charity Oxfam also made a blistering attack on the U.S. over its announced plans. 

“Oxfam does not support U.S. airdrops to Gaza, which would mostly serve to relieve the guilty consciences of senior U.S. officials whose policies are contributing to the ongoing atrocities and risk of famine in Gaza,” Oxfam America's humanitarian policy lead said. 

Scott Paul added, “While Palestinians in Gaza have been pushed to the absolute brink, dropping a paltry, symbolic amount of aid into Gaza with no plan for its safe distribution would not help and be deeply degrading to Palestinians.”

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has said American military cargo planes will be used for aid airdrops. 

But even big military cargo planes can carry only a fraction of the aid supplies that a truck convoy can carry. Likewise, distributing and securing aid dropped on the ground is very difficult. 

Hence, the U.S. decision to airdrop aid into Gaza is doomed to fail because it is just a political ploy to ease pressure on the Biden administration over its backing of Israel’s brutal onslaught in Gaza.  

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• airdrop
 
• U.S.
 
• Gaza