The United States and Jordan airdropped humanitarian aid into Gaza on Saturday, US Central Command said.
The combined operation by the US Air Force and the Royal Jordanian Air Force saw US C-130 aircraft dropping 38,000 meals along the Gaza coastline, CENTCOM said in a statement quoted by CNN.
There were 66 total bundles dropped – 22 from each of three aircraft, a US official said. There was no water or medical supplies in the bundles.
“These airdrops are part of a sustained effort to get more aid into Gaza, including by expanding the flow of aid through land corridors and routes,” CENTCOM said.
White House officials described Saturday’s operation as “successful.”
“The fact that today’s airdrop was successful is an important test case to show that we can do this again in the coming days and weeks successfully,” a senior administration official said during a call with reporters.
The operation came one day after President Joe Biden announced that the US will begin airdropping humanitarian aid into Gaza in the coming days.
In his announcement, Biden stressed that the current flow of aid to the Strip is not enough and added, “We’re going to pull out every stop we can."
Biden was critical of Israel for the lack of humanitarian aid entering Gaza, saying, “In addition to expanding deliveries by land, as I said, we’re going to insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need. No excuses.”
“Aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere near enough… Innocent lives are on the line and children’s lives are on the line,” the President said. “We should be getting hundreds of trucks in, not just several. And I won’t stand by, we won’t let up and we’re… trying to pull out every stop we can to get more assistance in.”
Earlier in the week, US officials told Axios that the White House is exploring the possibility of airdropping aid from US military planes into Gaza as deliveries by land become increasingly difficult.
The administration was skeptical of such an idea early in the war, but support for it has been growing, one official said.
The warming to the idea comes after Jordan conducted several rounds of aid airdrops in Gaza. Its most recent drops were done with the cooperation of Egypt and France.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II himself participated in an airdrop of humanitarian aid to Gaza earlier this month.