The US military airdropped aid into Gaza on Saturday, the first time it has done so in the area, after the deaths of Palestinians queuing for food highlighted the scale of the humanitarian disaster in the enclave, Reuters reported, according to News.ro.

Other countries, including Jordan and France, have already parachuted aid into Gaza, where, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, a quarter of the population – 576,000 people – are on the brink of starvation.

The release of aid from the USA was carried out with the help of C-130 transport planes. Those who parachuted more than 38,000 portions of food along the Mediterranean coast of the Gaza Strip, the US military said in a statement. Jordanian forces also participated in the operation.

“We are making plans for potential future airlift missions,” the statement said.

A US representative told Reuters that the landings took place over the southwestern part of Gaza and the city of Mawasi.

More than a million Palestinians sought refuge in the Rafah area, fleeing an Israeli offensive that has devastated much of Gaza, killing more than 30,000 people, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave.

Critics of the aid say it has only a limited impact on the suffering and that it is almost impossible to guarantee that supplies do not end up in the hands of militants.

Before the conflict, Gaza relied on 500 truckloads of supplies entering the enclave every day.