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Humanitarian aid falls over northern Gaza as the U.S. and other countries airdrop supplies into the enclave amid increasing struggles to get aid into the Strip through land.
AFP
The Israel-Hamas war is now on its 154th day, and the international community is rallying to keep Gaza from crumbling into famine as the U.S. President Joe Biden, an ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ordered American forces to construct a pier on the shores of Gaza to allow for wider-scale humanitarian aid delivery.
During his State of the Union address, Biden also warned Israel not to use Gaza as a “bargaining chip” in its war with Hamas. The Netanyahu government has been under U.S. pressure to allow more aid into the war-torn enclave and agree to a ceasefire deal.
The European Union is also leading wider efforts to help feed the civilians of Gaza as a maritime corridor to Gaza from Cyprus is being rushed to begin facilitating aid this weekend.
In the Gulf of Aden, U.S. forces with the Central Command (CENTCOM) shot down drones launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen Friday.
Fire exchanges between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah in the Israeli-Lebanese border as Israeli warplanes conducted strikes in southern Lebanon area following several rocket launches from Lebanon toward Har Dov and Metula in northern Israel.
Decades of violence in the Israel-Palestine conflict ultimately erupted on Oct. 7, when Hamas militants raided Israel, murdering more than a thousand people – mostly civilians – and abducting over 250 hostages, of which around 130 are still being held in Gaza five months into the war.
