White House National Security Communications Coordinator John Kirby says the announcement of U.S. airdropping more humanitarian assistance into Gaza is “supplementing” the ground aid that has been slowly getting in.
“We were working on this idea again for some time here, knowing that we weren’t meeting the need totally through convoys,” said Kirby.
“I think what yesterday’s event underscores and certainly underscored for the president is the need to continue to find alternative routes and alternative means of getting humanitarian assistance into to Gazans. It certainly underscores the importance of that.”
This comes a day after more than 100 Palestinians were killed during a chaotic encounter with Israeli troops.
Administration officials said their preference was to further increase overland aid deliveries through the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border points and to try to get Israel to open the Erez Crossing into northern Gaza.
The incident on Thursday appeared to tip the balance and push Biden to approve airdrops.
Kirby said that airdrops are difficult operations, but the acute need for aid in Gaza informed the president’s decision.
“It is extremely difficult to do an airdrop in such a crowded environment as is Gaza. Very, very densely populated,” said Kirby.
“A lot of people confined to small spaces. So you want to do it in a way that you can get it to close as close as you can to the people in need, but not in a way that puts them in any danger.”
Pressure has been mounting for Biden to move more aggressively to ease Palestinian suffering, including from lawmakers of Biden’s Democratic Party.
President Biden said earlier this week that he was optimistic that a cease-fire deal could be reached by early next week.
But he acknowledged that a prospective deal may have been set back after Israeli troops on Thursday fired on a large crowd of Palestinians racing to pull food off the aid convoy.
“A deal that would trigger a six week cease fire is currently on the table. In addition to the additional flow of aid that would come with that deal, “said Kirby.
“We’re continuing to work to make sure that we can get the hostages out as well and to see a reduction in the violence. With the fighting stopped. Aid will be able to flow more freely and we hope at an increased level. “