The huge rear gate of a Jordanian Air Force cargo plane slowly lowers like a stiff iron jaw, revealing a hazy blue sky and the devastated landscape of northern Gaza far below.
In the plane’s cavernous cargo hold, aid delivered by the crew is arranged in neat rows: chest-high bundles of boxes stacked on wood pallets, each wrapped in shrink wrap and heavy straps and marked with images of the Jordan flag.
Now, as light and sound enter, the beams slide down rollers in the floor and disappear through doors, descending under billowing parachutes as a silent and most certainly inappropriate offering to the desperate population below.
As humanitarian groups and others sound the alarm about impending famine in the northern Gaza Strip and widespread famine throughout the territory, airstrikes are playing a significant role in efforts to offer Palestinians with food, water and emergency supplies.
On Thursday, the Jordanian Air Force allowed a New York Times photographer on one among its planes to look at airdrops of aid packages over the northern Gaza Strip. The journey, takeoff and return from King Abdullah II Air Base in Jordan, east of Amman, took several hours.
Countries including Jordan, the United States, Britain and France say the declines help offset a sharp decline in the amount of aid entering Gaza by truck since Oct. 7, when Hamas led a deadly attack on Israel and Israel responded with a month-long military assault.
The United Nations and aid groups have complained that truck deliveries are slowing amid Israel’s insistence on controlling all supplies entering Gaza. Most of the humanitarian aid trucks were allowed through just two border crossings – one from Egypt and one from Israel – in southern Gaza.
Israel maintains that disorganization amongst aid groups is chargeable for the slow delivery of aid to Palestinians and that the majority aid is directed to Hamas or the black market, although these claims can’t be verified.
One of the few alternatives is to drop supplies from the sky – a process that takes only a jiffy in the air but involves a lot of bureaucracy and hours of preparation on the ground.
Jordanians said there have been 1000’s of meals on dozens of pallets pushed from planes on Thursday. But humanitarian officials say the airdrops are inefficient and expensive because even large military cargo planes deliver lower than a single convoy of trucks could deliver.
And the drops will be dangerous: Gaza authorities this week said 12 people drowned while attempting to retrieve aid that had fallen into the ocean.
