Gaza airdrops are a desperate measure for a desperate land

ABOARD A JORDANIAN AIR FORCE C-130 >> Airdrops are not known for their precision.

On Thursday, after sweeping over the devastated landscape that is now the Gaza Strip, a Jordanian air force plane descended and banked. Following a brief countdown, its rear doors opened and, with two crew members tethered at the edge, pallets of food were dispatched to an uncertain fate.

The method is notoriously unreliable, the amount of food insufficient, but people in Gaza are starving, and so after a hiatus of months, Jordan is one of several countries that have resumed the drops in recent days.

“I feel bad,” a load master on the flight, Saif Alzahrawy, said quietly, of the situation in Gaza. “We hope this is enough. But I want to do more.”

The airdrop Thursday was one of two conducted by the Jordanian air force in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates. In all, it said, about 20 tons of food and other basic necessities were parachuted over the territory, where Israel has been at war with Hamas since the group’s deadly attack on southern Israel in October 2023.

International aid drops to Gaza resumed this past week after Israel lifted a prohibition on them that had lasted for almost nine months.

Aid officials have warned that Gaza’s 2 million people are facing mass starvation, with many countries, including some of Israel’s allies, holding the Israeli government responsible for the situation. Israel has said it is doing everything it can to allow aid into the enclave and has argued that relief agencies need to do more to distribute food already inside.

Since Sunday, international airdrops have delivered about 100 tons of aid to Gaza, the Jordanian military said, and the operation is expected to continue for two weeks. Among other countries taking part besides Jordan and the Emirates are Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany and Spain.

Airdrops can go astray, damaging buildings and injuring people. Palestinians have drowned wading into the sea to retrieve boxes of foods. Others have been hurt in melees set off by the deliveries.

More important, aid experts say, trucks can carry far more food and deliver it to chosen destinations.

The Jordanians themselves say airdrops are far from ideal. But what they do still matters, members of the air force believe.

“I feel proud of myself when I’m helping my brothers,” said Rami Alslaheen, 24, an airframe technician who did not take part in Thursday’s aid runs. “I do what I can.”

Conversation on board was kept to a minimum on the two-hour flight from the King Abdullah II air base and back again. The roar of the C-130 Hercules engines discouraged small talk.

Oil and rice were among the provisions dropped somewhere over southern Gaza.

As the pallets floated down, people could be seen through a telephoto lens scattered below. Some waited under palm trees to escape the harsh summer conditions. Others walked along the road, or stood in the middle of the open landscape.

What happened after that was unknown. By the time the aid landed, the plane was already heading back home.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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