In Gaza, Palestinians drown in desperate attempt to get aid dropped in sea
Al Jazeera
Yusuf Ghaben was one of 12 who drowned, as starvation drives Palestinians in Gaza to take deadly risks.
When aid planes dropped packages into the sea off the northwest coast of the Gaza Strip, Yusuf Ghaben, a father of nine, decided to swim for them.
“I pleaded with him not to go because of his age. I begged him, but he said, ‘Maybe God will provide for us, and we can feed our children’,” Khitam Ghaben, Yusuf’s wife, told Al Jazeera. Dressed all in black, she fought back tears. “He went to feed his little ones.”
The wind was strong, creating choppy waves. A number of people waded into the water to grab the aid deliveries and some emerged with boxes in hand. But Yusuf had to be dragged out, as he was unconscious. Once he was pulled from the waves, young men attempted to administer CPR, footage of the incident obtained by Al Jazeera showed. Next to him, his son Jihad yelled in agony, “Father?! Father?!”
Yusuf was one of 12 people who drowned attempting to retrieve aid in as-Sudaniya, off the northwestern coast of Gaza on March 26, according to Palestinian authorities. The people were driven to desperation by a severe famine in the north of the enclave as a result of Israel’s restrictions on aid access, a prospect that humanitarian groups and officials have warned of for weeks.
The Israeli military has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians in its war on Gaza. Many Palestinians have lost family members in air strikes or other military actions.
