'Preference for self-respect over aid.' Three-year-old Palestinian child succumbs to air-dropped assistance in south Gaza, as reported by the child's family.
The family was having breakfast when parcels fell from aircraft and headed towards the refugee zone, as per Sami Ayyad, the grandfather of the child, informed CNN. Several family members tried to seek shelter within their makeshift tents; nevertheless, the falling package took the life of Sami instantly, according to Ayyad's recollection. His aunt and cousin sustained injuries on their foot and face respectively, mentioned Ayyad further.
“I was here with the kid, and merely a moment after I left him... the package fell upon him,” Ayyad stated. “There was barely a second between me and him. I lifted him up and started running.”
“We lack hospitals. I ran as fast as I could, but the kid passed away immediately. I couldn’t save him. Blood started streaming from his nose and mouth,” he continued.
CNN footage from the aftermath exhibits blood spots on the ground, as Ayyad indicates the location where Sami was alleged to have been slain. Family members can be seen gathering at the camp for refugees, their eyes brimming with tears. Elsewhere, men, women, and children wander barefoot among a sprawl of tents fashioned from fragile sheeting.
Several nations have delivered aid to Gaza by air, including the United States, United Kingdom, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates.
“We don’t require aid. We crave dignity,” said Ayyad. “Enough with the embarrassment and the disrespect we’re exposed to – not just from the Israelis, but from our Arab contemporaries as well.”
Sami’s uncle, Mahmoud Ayyad, told CNN: “Our lives are... humiliation, death, terror. I don’t know if I will wake up alive at night.”
“We are human beings, not beasts to throw food at us from the sky,” he added.
The United Arab Emirates dispensed 81 food parcels into Khan Younis on Saturday, as per records from the Israeli organization controlling the distribution of aid into Gaza. Over 10,000 parcels have been delivered by airdrops lately, according to Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT.
CNN has reached out to the UAE for comment. CNN video footage from the Khan Younis camp on Saturday shows crates of assistance, bearing the UAE flag emblazoned on cardboard boxes.
Israel’s limitations on aid deliveries into the region have depleted critical provisions, jeopardizing more than 2.2 million people with the risk of starvation, as per a UN-supported report. Around 1.84 million Palestinians are experiencing high levels of food insecurity, according to a report published Thursday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which evaluates international food insecurity and malnutrition.
However, human rights agencies have recurrently criticized airdrops as an inefficient strategy for delivering aid to Palestinians in Gaza, urging Israeli authorities to lift limitations on land crossings into the enclave. CNN has earlier reported on aid drops causing fatalities while Palestinians sought food in Gaza.
The Israeli military campaign in Gaza has annihilated neighborhoods, erased entire families, and caused a crisis of acute hunger, displacement, and disease. At least 42,603 Palestinians have perished and another 99,795 were wounded since Israel initiated its war in Gaza on October 7, as per records from the Ministry of Health there on Monday.
Israel declared its military offensive on October 7 in retaliation to attacks from the militant group Hamas, which governs Gaza. At least 1,200 individuals were killed and over 250 others were abducted, according to Israeli authorities.
Sami and his family had been sheltering in Khan Younis following their displacement by the Israeli military campaign at least six times, based on his father, Mahmoud.
“I don’t desire aid. My son is no more. He was standing there urging me to gaze at the parachutes. He ran away when he spotted it approaching him,” he told CNN on Saturday.
“There was an airstrike here, and he endured. But his destiny was to be taken by a parachute,” he concluded.
CNN’s Mostafa Salem contributed to this report.
"Despite several nations, such as the United States, United Kingdom, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, delivering aid to Gaza by air, human rights agencies continue to criticize airdrops as an inefficient strategy and urge Israeli authorities to lift limitations on land crossings into the enclave."
"The Middle East, specifically Gaza, has been facing a crisis due to Israel's limitations on aid deliveries, putting over 2.2 million people at risk of starvation, as per a UN-supported report."
