18 Palestinians lost their lives due to aid packages dropped from airplanes

At least 12 Palestinians drowned and six others were trampled to death when people rushed to collect air-dropped American aid packages off the northern Gaza coast, local authorities said.
The Pentagon confirmed that three of the 18 packages it air-dropped on Monday had parachute malfunctions and fell into the water just off the coast of the Strip. Abu Mohammad, who witnessed the incident, told CNN the aid was dropped far from the coast into the sea, after which multiple men “who don’t know how to swim drowned” while trying to retrieve it.
Footage of the incident showed people running towards the site of the airdrop as parcels descended upon a beach in Beit Lahia in north Gaza, with some falling onto the shore and others into the sea.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller laments reports that several Palestinians drowned while trying to retrieve air-dropped aid that landed off the coast of northern Gaza.
“It is a tragedy,” Miller says when asked about the reports in a briefing. “It is not just a tragedy that these individuals died trying to get aid. It is a tragedy that they felt so desperate that they had to swim out into the ocean to try and retrieve it in the first place.”
“No one should have to put themselves at risk to try and get food, water and medicine for their families. It should just be there for them, and that is what we’re trying to accomplish through the work that we’re doing to provide humanitarian assistance and in our engagements with the government of Israel to facilitate the delivery of additional humanitarian assistance,” the State Department spokesman says.
Aid agencies say only about a fifth of required supplies are entering Gaza as Israel persists with an air and ground offensive, triggered by Hamas' October 7 attack, that has shattered the enclave, pushing parts of it into famine already.
They say deliveries by air or sea directly onto Hamas-run Gaza's beaches are no substitute for increased supplies coming in by land via Israel or Egypt.