US Military Planes Airdrop About 38,000 Meals Into Gaza

Children look for salvageable items amid the rubble of a Mosque and makeshift shelters that were destroyed in Israeli strikes in Deir El-Balah in central Gaza on March 2, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Children look for salvageable items amid the rubble of a Mosque and makeshift shelters that were destroyed in Israeli strikes in Deir El-Balah in central Gaza on March 2, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
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US Military Planes Airdrop About 38,000 Meals Into Gaza

Children look for salvageable items amid the rubble of a Mosque and makeshift shelters that were destroyed in Israeli strikes in Deir El-Balah in central Gaza on March 2, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Children look for salvageable items amid the rubble of a Mosque and makeshift shelters that were destroyed in Israeli strikes in Deir El-Balah in central Gaza on March 2, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

US military C-130 cargo planes on Saturday dropped food in pallets over Gaza, the first American airdrop of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave, three US officials said.
Three planes from Air Forces Central dropped 66 bundles containing about 38,000 meals into Gaza at 8:30 a.m. EST, according to two of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity before a public announcement.
The airdrop is expected to be the first of many announced by President Joe Biden on Friday. The aid will be coordinated with Jordan.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Friday that the airdrops were being planned to deliver emergency humanitarian assistance in a safe way to people on the ground.
The C-130 cargo plane is a widely used military jet to deliver aid to remote places due to its ability to land in austere environments and cargo capacity.
A C-130 can airlift as much as 42,000 pounds of cargo and its crews know how to rig the cargo, which sometimes can include even vehicles, onto massive pallets can be safely dropped out of the back of the aircraft.
Air Force loadmasters secure the bundles onto pallets with netting that is rigged for release in the back of a C-130, and then crews release it with a parachute when the aircraft reaches the intended delivery zone.

Other countries including France, Egypt and Jordan have carried out airdrops of aid into Gaza.

At least 576,000 people in the Gaza Strip - one quarter of the enclave's population - are one step from famine, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.



At Least 20 Killed in Israeli Strike on Lebanon’s Alamat, Ministry Says

People check the damage a day after Israeli airstrikes that targeted the eastern Lebanese village of Knaisseh near Baalbek in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley on November 10, 2024. (AFP)
People check the damage a day after Israeli airstrikes that targeted the eastern Lebanese village of Knaisseh near Baalbek in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley on November 10, 2024. (AFP)
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At Least 20 Killed in Israeli Strike on Lebanon’s Alamat, Ministry Says

People check the damage a day after Israeli airstrikes that targeted the eastern Lebanese village of Knaisseh near Baalbek in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley on November 10, 2024. (AFP)
People check the damage a day after Israeli airstrikes that targeted the eastern Lebanese village of Knaisseh near Baalbek in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley on November 10, 2024. (AFP)

At least 20 people, including three children, were killed and six others injured in an Israeli strike on Alamat in Lebanon's Mount Lebanon province, Lebanon's health ministry said on Sunday.

Aalmat is located north of Beirut and far from the areas in southern and eastern Lebanon where the Hezbollah group has a major presence.

The Health Ministry said a further six people were wounded. There was no immediate Israeli comment.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles into Israel after war broke out in Gaza in 2023 in solidarity with the Palestinians and its fellow Iran-backed armed group Hamas.

Israel retaliated, and a series of escalations over several months led to all-out war in September, when Israel carried out a wave of heavy strikes and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, as well as most of his top commanders.

Since then, Israel has struck areas deeper and deeper inside Lebanon, while Hezbollah has expanded its rocket fire from northern to central Israel. The fighting has killed over 3,000 people in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry, and more than 70 people in Israel.

In videos purporting to show the aftermath of Sunday's strike in Aalmat, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Beirut, people were seen pulling the body of a little girl out of the rubble. The house had been flattened, and several cars nearby were also damaged.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led fighters blew holes in the border fence and stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. They killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel's offensive has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities who do not distinguish between civilians and militants in their count but say over half the fatalities were women and children.