Palestinians are drowning trying to reach parcels airdropped into the sea, paramedics say

• At least 12 Palestinians drowned trying to reach aid off Gaza's coast, local paramedics said.
• Footage shows hungry Palestinians rushing toward the airdropped aid that had landed in the sea.

At least 12 Palestinians drowned off the coast of Gaza while attempting to reach airdropped parcels that had landed in the sea, local paramedics said, according to CNN.

The media office for Gaza's Hamas-run government said in a message to Business Insider that 12 Palestinians had died by drowning, with six others dying in a "stampede" for humanitarian aid.

BI was unable to verify the claims.

Footage obtained by CNN, as well as by Reuters, showed hundreds of Palestinians rushing toward the site of an aid drop in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.

The video showed Palestinians fighting for packages, with some running into the sea to reach aid that had landed away from the shore.

Abu Mohammad, who witnessed the incident, told CNN that multiple men who didn't know how to swim drowned.

"There were strong currents, and all the parachutes fell in the water," he told the news outlet. "People want to eat and are hungry."

Abu Qamar, a researcher for the human rights group EuroMed Rights, told The New York Times that one person appeared to have died after becoming entangled in a parachute.

It is not clear which country was responsible for the airdrop.

In a statement issued to the press, Gaza's media office said it holds "the US administration and the Israeli occupation responsible for the policy of starvation and siege."

The US has joined several other countries, including the UK and France, in airdropping aid into Gaza, which the World Health Organization warned is at risk of famine.

Israel invaded Gaza in the wake of the October 7 terror attacks, when Hamas militants killed an estimated 1,200 Israelis.

Since then, the Israeli counteroffensive has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

Pentagon spokesperson Bryon J. McGarry told BI by email that it was aware of the reports but could not corroborate them.

According to Reuters, the Pentagon acknowledged that three of the 18 bundles of airdropped aid into Gaza on Monday had fallen into the water due to parachute malfunctions.

McGarry told BI that the sites of humanitarian airdrops are chosen with civilian safety in mind, but if parachutes fail to deploy, the air drops need to occur over water to "mitigate potential harm."

McGarry added: "In the event of a parachute malfunction, the bundles will subsequently land in the water and away from people on the ground."

Earlier this month, five people were killed and several others injured after a parachute failed to open during a previous attempt to land humanitarian aid, Al Jazeera reported.

The pallet crashed into a crowd waiting for food north of Gaza City's Shati refugee camp, the news outlet said.

Hamas, in a statement on Tuesday, called for an end to the airdrops and the reopening of land crossing for humanitarian aid to prevent further casualties.

The statement said: "We call for an end to the operations of landing aid in this offensive, wrong, inappropriate and useless manner."

March 27, 2024 — This story has been updated to include a response from a Pentagon spokesperson.