Palestinian PM asks UN, EU to ‘parachute aid’ into Gaza

Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh on Monday called on the European Union and the United Nations to “parachute aid” into the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by fighting between Israel and Hamas.

“I call on the United Nations and the European Union to parachute aid into the Gaza Strip, especially the north,” he said, referring to the area where fighting is most intense.

Israeli forces reached the gates of Gaza City’s main hospital on Monday, the primary target in their battle to seize control of the northern half of the Gaza Strip, where medics said patients including newborn babies were dying for lack of fuel.

There was also fresh concern that the war could spread beyond Gaza, with an upsurge of clashes on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, and the United States launching air strikes on Iran-linked militia targets in neighboring Syria.

Israel launched its campaign last month to annihilate Hamas, the militant group which runs the Gaza Strip, after Hamas fighters rampaged through southern Israel killing civilians. Around 1,200 people died and 240 were dragged to Gaza as hostages according to Israel’s tally, in the deadliest day in its 75-year history.

Since then thousands of Gazans have been killed and more than half of the population made homeless by a relentless Israeli military campaign. Israel has ordered the total evacuation of the northern half of Gaza. Gaza medical authorities say more than 11,000 people have been confirmed killed, around 40 percent of them children.