President Joe Biden twice confused Gaza with Ukraine as he announced the US would provide desperately-needed aid to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
Mr Biden, 81, confirmed on Friday that humanitarian assistance would be airdropped into Gaza – a day after the Hamas-run health ministry said 30,000 Palestinians have died since the war began last October.
“In the coming days, we’re going to join with our friends in Jordan and others who are providing airdrops of additional food and supplies”, the president said, adding the US will “seek to open up other avenues in, including possibly a marine corridor”.
But Mr Biden twice mistakenly referred to airdrops to help Ukraine – leaving White House officials to clarify that he was in fact talking about Gaza.
Mr Biden revealed the development while hosting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Washington – as he warned “children’s lives are on the line”.
“Aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough,” he said.
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“Now, it’s nowhere nearly enough. Innocent lives are on the line and children’s lives are on the line.
“We won’t stand by until we get more aid in there. We should be getting hundreds of trucks in, not just several.”
Mr Biden’s vow to help came a day after dozens of Palestinians perished during a deadly aid truck incident in Gaza City.
At least 115 Palestinians were killed and more than 750 others were injured, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, on Thursday.
US correspondent
Airdrops are a last resort. They are inefficient, inaccurate, expensive and dangerous.
They are only chosen as an option when things are really desperate.
The White House spokesman admitted as much just after the president’s announcement: “There are no missions more complicated than humanitarian assistance airdrops,” John Kirby said.
In this case, the decision to resort to them is all the more remarkable because America is dropping aid to counter failures in a war being prosecuted with US weapons by one of its closest allies.
Israel controls the aid that gets into Gaza. To have to airdrop it is to admit a fundamental failure and a humanitarian disaster.
It’s inefficient because only small amounts of aid can be dropped at a time – palates of food parachuted from the back of planes.
It is inaccurate because you have no control over precisely where the aid will land.
It is dangerous because the aid drops could hit people as they land and because they could cause stampedes on the ground.
Usually aid is distributed with the coordination of aid officials on the ground.
It’s also dangerous for the aircrews flying over a war zone.
It is expensive because it requires significant military coordination.
In short – it is a stark illustration of just how much of a (man-made) disaster Gaza now is.
Witnesses said nearby Israeli troops opened fire as huge crowds raced to pull goods off an aid convoy.
Israel said many of the dead were trampled in a stampede linked to the chaos – and that its troops fired at some people in the crowd who they believed moved towards them in a threatening way.
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On Friday evening, the UK joined demands for an investigation into the killings, described by Foreign Secretary David Cameron as “horrific”.
Lord Cameron said there must be “an urgent investigation and accountability” – amid growing international calls for a probe into the episode.
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“This must not happen again,” he said.
While he did not directly blame Israel, he linked the deaths to the lack of aid being allowed into Gaza.
“We can’t separate what happened yesterday from the inadequate aid supplies,” Lord Cameron said.
“In February, only half the number of trucks crossed into Gaza that did in January. This is simply unacceptable.
“Israel has an obligation to ensure that significantly more humanitarian aid reaches the people of Gaza.”
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French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his “strongest condemnation” for the shootings and called for “truth, justice and respect for international law” in a post on X.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the incident on the social media platform, writing: “The desperate civilians in Gaza need urgent help, including those in the north where the UN has not been able to deliver aid in more than a week.”
