US Military Carries Out New Airdrop of Aid into Gaza

 Packages fall towards northern Gaza, after being dropped from a military aircraft, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, as seen from Israel's border with Gaza in southern Israel March 7, 2024. (Reuters)
Packages fall towards northern Gaza, after being dropped from a military aircraft, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, as seen from Israel's border with Gaza in southern Israel March 7, 2024. (Reuters)
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US Military Carries Out New Airdrop of Aid into Gaza

 Packages fall towards northern Gaza, after being dropped from a military aircraft, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, as seen from Israel's border with Gaza in southern Israel March 7, 2024. (Reuters)
Packages fall towards northern Gaza, after being dropped from a military aircraft, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, as seen from Israel's border with Gaza in southern Israel March 7, 2024. (Reuters)

The US military carried out its third airdrop of aid into Gaza on Thursday, dropping more than 38,000 meals amid an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in the crowded coastal enclave.

The Israeli offensive in Gaza, which is supported by the United States, has displaced most of the enclave's 2.3 million people and led to critical shortages of food, water and medicine.

In a statement, the US military said the aid was dropped by US and Jordanian C-130 aircraft in northern Gaza.

Aid dropped by air is an expensive and insufficient alternative to aid that is trucked in, given the scale of the humanitarian crisis, US officials say.

President Joe Biden's administration is pressing for greater access by land and also exploring a maritime option.



Hezbollah on High Alert, Lebanon Asks US to Urge Restraint from Israel

A view shows southern Lebanese villages in the background as seen from Tyre, southern Lebanon July 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
A view shows southern Lebanese villages in the background as seen from Tyre, southern Lebanon July 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
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Hezbollah on High Alert, Lebanon Asks US to Urge Restraint from Israel

A view shows southern Lebanese villages in the background as seen from Tyre, southern Lebanon July 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
A view shows southern Lebanese villages in the background as seen from Tyre, southern Lebanon July 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Taher

Hezbollah was on high alert on Sunday, two security sources told Reuters, as tensions spiraled following a deadly attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that Israel blamed on the Lebanese armed group.

Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack. The security sources said Hezbollah had preemptively cleared out some key sites in both Lebanon's south and the eastern Bekaa Valley in the event of a possible attack by Israel.

The Lebanese government has asked the United States to urge restraint from Israel, Lebanon's foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib told Reuters on Sunday.

Bou Habib said the US had asked the Lebanese government to pass on a message to Hezbollah to show restraint as well. Israel has vowed swift retaliation after a rocket from Lebanon struck a soccer field in the Golan Heights’ village of Majdal Shams, killing 12 children and teens in what the military said was the deadliest attack on civilians since Oct. 7.

Overnight, the Israeli military said it struck a number of targets inside Lebanon, though the intensity of the strikes was similar to months of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.