Hamas calls for Gaza air drops to STOP after 12 people DROWN and six others die in stampedes trying to reach packages dropped along the coast in starving north of the territory

Hamas has called for an end to aid airdrops into Gaza after claiming 12 people drowned and six others were killed in stampedes trying to reach the food packages.

The deaths happened in the starving north of the besieged territory on Monday, with people rushing to collect parcels dropped from planes along Gaza's Mediterranean coast.

According to Turkey's Anadolu news agency, the airdrop 'malfunctioned' - which is thought to have led to the aid ending up in the sea and not on the beach.

Hamas said: 'We call for an immediate end to airdrop operation and we demand the immediate and rapid opening of land crossings to allow humanitarian aid to reach our Palestinian people.'

A Hamas statement said: 'The aid airdrops pose a real threat to the lives of hungry Palestinians. This all put the lives of people in real danger.'

12 people have drowned and six were killed in stampedes trying to reach the food packages. Pictured: Palestinians wade out to sea to collect aidropped aid in northern Gaza Strip yesterday

Palestinians gather on a beach as they collect aid airdropped by an airplane yesterday, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip

Palestinians gather on a beach as they collect aid airdropped by an airplane, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip, March 25, 2024

This picture taken from Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip shows a Royal Jordanian Air Force C-130 Hercules turboprop dropping aid this morning

The IDF bombardment of Gaza has seen a severe lack of aid reaching the area.

Airdrops need a large landing space to minimise the chance of damage and injury on the ground. 

But starving Palestinians are taking increasing risks to collect food parcels with many of the deliveries dropped along the territory's coastline. 

Humanitarian agencies advise that airdrops should ideally be large, open areas no smaller than a football field. This is why deliveries have often been aimed at Gaza's coastline.

However, this has sometimes resulted in aid falling into the sea or being carried by the wind into Israel, according to local accounts. 

Aid groups say only a fraction of the supplies required to meet basic humanitarian needs have arrived in Gaza since October.  The UN is warning of famine. 

The aid entering the Gaza Strip by land is far below pre-war levels, at around 150 vehicles a day compared to at least 500 before the war, according to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

As of the beginning of March, The US had airdropped 36,000 meals into northern Gaza in co-ordination with Jordan.

The RAF has revealed it has airdropped more than 10 tons of food into Gaza for the first time amid fears that 1.1million people face 'imminent' famine in a 'catastrophic' humanitarian crisis.

A Royal Air Force Airbus A400M dropped packages of water, rice, cooking oil, flour, tinned goods and baby formula along the territory's northern coastline.

The aircraft flew from Amman to drop the supplies as part of a Jordanian-led international aid mission, according to the Ministry of Defence.

Grant Shapps authorised the airdrop following an assessed reduction in threat to the military mission and risk to civilians.

Mr Shapps said: 'The UK's goal is to use every route possible to deliver life-saving aid, whether that is by road, air or new routes via the sea.'

Britain has previously delivered 2,000 tons of food aid and thousands of blankets, tents and other relief items in road convoys from Egypt.

Last week, Lord Cameron accused Israel of holding up deliveries of aid into Gaza through unnecessary bureaucracy.

Meanwhile, there was no let-up in the Gaza war today with Israeli troops battling Hamas militants despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an 'immediate ceasefire'.

The resolution was adopted on Monday after Israel's closest ally the United States abstained amid growing concern for the worsening humanitarian situation after nearly six months of war.

The text demands an 'immediate ceasefire' for the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan, leading to a 'lasting' truce.

In the distance, today, an Israeli attack helicopter can be seen hovering above the territory  

Aid parcels such as these in today's delivery are supposed to fall onto land in an open space

It also demands that Hamas and other militants free hostages they took during the unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel, though it does not directly link the release to a truce.

In Gaza, there was intense fighting overnight, with Israeli operations in and around at least three major hospitals in the besieged territory.

The Israeli military said its jets had struck more than 60 targets in Gaza in the past day, including tunnels, infrastructure and military structures 'in which armed terrorists were identified'.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 70 people were killed early Tuesday, 13 of them in Israeli air strikes around the southern city of Rafah.

The Israeli military said air raid sirens sounded in areas near the Gaza border.

The Security Council resolution was the first since the Gaza war erupted to demand an immediate halt in the fighting.

After the vote, UN chief Antonio Guterres led calls for the resolution to be implemented. 'Failure would be unforgivable,' he said on social media platform X.

Israel reacted furiously to the US abstention, while Washington insisted that it did not mark a shift in policy, although it has taken a tougher line with Israel in recent weeks.

The United States had previously vetoed successive draft resolutions calling for a ceasefire, but it has become increasingly concerned by the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the United Nations has warned of famine in the north by May if urgent action isn't taken.

The Gaza health ministry said seven people had drowned in the Mediterranean trying to reach aid airdropped into the territory.

Washington has also baulked at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin's determination to launch an assault on Rafah, the last major population centre still untouched by Israeli ground troops where most of Gaza's population has sought refuge from the fighting.

In protest at the United States' abstention in the UN vote, which it said 'hurts' both its war effort and attempts to release hostages, Israel cancelled a planned visit to Washington by a high-ranking delegation.

The war began with Hamas's October 7 attacks, which resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Militants also seized about 250 hostages, of whom Israel believes around 130 are still held in Gaza, including 33 presumed dead.

Israel's retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 32,333 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry.

Hamas welcomed the Security Council resolution and reaffirmed its readiness to negotiate the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

In a statement, the militant group blamed Israel for the failure to make progress in the latest round of talks hosted by mediator Qatar.

Hamas said Netanyahu and his cabinet were 'entirely responsible for the failure of negotiation efforts and for preventing an agreement from being reached up until now'.

Netanyahu's office hit back on X, charging that Hamas was 'not interested in continuing negotiations' as it had been emboldened by the Security Council vote.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was in Tehran on Tuesday for talks with Iranian officials, state media reported.

It is Haniyeh's second visit to key backer Iran since the start of the war.

In the occupied West Bank, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

She welcomed the Security Council resolution and said it was 'in the absolute interest of the people of Israel that we come to a ceasefire now so that the hostages can be released.'

On the ground in Gaza, the fighting raged on unabated.

Dozens of Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles surrounded the Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis, where thousands of displaced people have sought refuge, witnesses said.

The health ministry said shots were being fired around the sprawling complex, but no raid had yet taken place.

At Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital, the territory's largest, Israeli troops have been involved in heavy fighting for the past nine days. Israel claims to have killed 170 Palestinian militants and arrested hundreds of others.

And on Monday, the Israeli military reported killing about 20 fighters around Al-Amal Hospital, also in Khan Yunis, over the previous day in close-quarters combat and air strikes.

Israel has labelled its operations 'precise operational activities' and said it has taken care to avoid harm to civilians, but aid agencies have voiced concern for non-combatants caught up in the fighting.

Palestinians living near Al-Shifa have reported corpses in the streets, constant bombardment and the rounding up of men who are stripped to their underwear and questioned.

Palestinians in Rafah welcomed the UN vote and called on Washington to use its influence with Israel to ensure the resolution is implemented.

Bilal Awad, 63, said Washington must 'stand against an attack on Rafah, and support the return of the displaced to their cities'.

Ihab al-Assar, 60, expressed hope that 'Israel will comply' with the Security Council text.

The fighting came as an independent UN-appointed expert, Francesca Albanese, said there were 'reasonable grounds to believe' Israel's actions in Gaza had met the threshold for 'acts of genocide'.

Israel rejected Albanese's report, due to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday, as an 'obscene inversion of reality'.