The Israel Defence Forces on Friday announced that it had air-dropped aid into the Gaza Strip in coordination with six other countries, Jerusalem Post reported. As many as 126 packages containing food were airdropped for the residents of southern and northern Gaza by six countries, the IDF said.
This marked the first joint operation conducted with three European countries. The operation was conducted with the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Spain, France, and Germany. This operation comes when international criticism has been mounting related to the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Earlier on July 27, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdropped 25 tons of aid into the Gaza Strip, marking the first aid marks the first airdrop in months.
Israel denies allegations of deliberate starvation
Meanwhile, the IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has strongly denied allegations of deliberate starvation. He said that the claims about starvation are part of a deliberate, coordinated, and deceitful attempt aimed at accusing the IDF of war crimes. The Jerusalem Post reported, quoting Zamir.
“The party responsible for the killing and suffering of Gaza’s residents is Hamas. IDF soldiers and commanders act with morality and integrity, in accordance with the IDF’s spirit and international law,” he said further.
Talking about the status of hostage negotiations, Zamir said that the military would press on with operations regardless of any partial deal. According to the report, he also said that in the coming days, it will be determined if a partial deal is about to be reached. Moreover, if the deal has not been reached by then, the fighting will continue.
Despite the November 2024 ceasefire, the IDF has continued to conduct strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon to fully disarm the group. Following this, the group’s military capabilities have been degraded from 150,000 rockets and tens of thousands of launchers earlier, to now just a couple of thousand launchers, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The new Sunni regime in Syria has blocked Iran’s weapon transfer to Hezbollah, which the IDF claimed dealt a significant blow to Hezbollah. IDF has also carried out up to 5 strikes on cross-border areas between Syria and Lebanon.
Since the ceasefire, the IDF has conducted over 500 strikes against Hezbollah targets, reported the Jerusalem Post. The IDF has claimed that Hezbollah no longer poses a significant threat of a large-scale ground invasion. Although isolated attacks may still occur, the military believes the risk of a major, coordinated assault has been effectively neutralised.
