From the sky, the torched ruins of once-bustling cities simmer into view as the back of a Jordanian military plane yawns open. The ground beneath – Gaza – is ash and ruin: the bottom of a firepit stretching out to the horizon.
It is as if giants have torn through anything that once lived here: monstrous teeth have ripped chunks out of the few buildings that still teeter above ground. Everything else appears stamped underfoot.
In some corners, Israeli tank tracks have clawed up what is left of the soil in sickening scrawls. The only flicker of life is the families corralled into tents on scraps of beach in the punishing sunlight.
From the ground looking up, these impossibly huge planes roar into view. It is absurd. Gaza is just 25 miles long and a few miles wide, and entirely accessible by land and sea.
But because of Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the strip and war with militant group Hamas, coupled with its crippling blockade, countries across the world are now dropping aid at enormous expense from the sky.
Airdrops are always a last resort, a desperate measure. That is because it rarely gets to those who are most in need, it can be dangerous and there are safer simpler routes via land UN officials have told The Independent – those dying of starvation are too weak to endure the hunger games to grab it.
Sometimes it lands in the sea. Sometimes it lands on the very people it is supposed to save, with fatal consequences.
“Like all the young men, Oday waited in the scorching sun for four hours. But when the planes arrived, he couldn’t get out of the way in time,” said Moatasem al-Quraan, 31, from central Gaza, about his cousin, nurse Oday al-Quraan, who was crushed to death earlier on Monday.
A pallet of aid being airdropped into central Gaza landed on him as he waited for food, his family and eyewitnesses told The Independent.
“He is married and has two children,” said Moatasem. “He was like every citizen in Gaza. He has been hungry for four months.
“The plane that dropped the aid which killed Oday was carrying 12 boxes; inside each were 36 cartons of food. Where will we distribute them? The aid on the plane isn’t enough for the 20,000 people who were waiting there.”
Further north in Gaza, Muhammad Mansour, a 39-year-old father of six, said that when the aid drops, it is usually taken by armed gangs, as crippling hunger has exploded into lawlessness.
A few times it falls into the sea.
“I don’t know how to swim,” Muhammad said in desperation. “Some went out in small fishing boats, but when they got it, the flour, sugar and rice were useless due to the seawater.”
On Monday, the Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF), also known as the Arab Army, conducted seven airdrop operations together with the UAE, Germany, France, Belgium and Canada – delivering 45 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza as part of the kingdom’s ongoing efforts to support Palestinians in the enclave.
In total, 289 airdrops have been conducted since Israel permitted them to restart two weeks ago, delivering 305 tonnes of aid.
Meanwhile, officials in Jordan warned that they have had warehouses of aid for Gaza gathering dust since Israel reimposed its devastating blockade in March.
Hussein Shebli, the head of the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation (JHCO), which coordinates much of Jordan’s aid response for Gaza, painted a damning picture of the nightmare of getting those supplies in by land.
He said they face long distances and multiple checkpoints that make transportation difficult, as well as frequent closures of the crossings into Gaza, and “active prevention of aid entry by the occupying entity”.
“Deliberate inspection delays at checkpoints and crossings often hold shipments for extended periods, leading to spoilage and further disruption,” he said.
Repeated attacks by Israeli settlers on aid convoys have caused serious delays and damage to shipments. The aid that does get to the crossing points can then be rejected on “questionable grounds”, he added, referencing one load of dates which was turned back “over the alleged presence of pits”.
Israel continues to deny there are restrictions on aid or that there is even a hunger crisis in Gaza, despite the UN-backed global hunger monitor recently concluding that “the worst-case scenario of famine” is playing out.
Instead, the Israeli government blames Hamas for the suffering in Gaza and says it is taking steps for more aid to reach the population, including pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas, airdrops, and announcing protected routes for aid convoys.
The main military unit coordinating aid – COGAT – has even blamed the UN for not picking up aid it has allowed in, although UN officials said they are faced with a slew of obstacles, including struggling to get permits to reach these pick-up points.
The Israeli military said on Monday that it will continue to work “to improve the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip … while refuting the false claims of deliberate starvation in Gaza”.
But the reality is people are still dying of hunger: Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday that five more people died of starvation or malnutrition over the past 24 hours. The latest deaths raised the toll of those dying from hunger to 180, including 93 children, since the war began. Images are still pouring out of hospitals showing emaciated children, their bones pressing through paper-thin flesh.
There are also deep concerns for the 20 remaining live Israeli hostages and captives still being held by Hamas, who during the 7 October bloody attacks on southern Israel seized over 250 hostages and killed over 1,000 more, according to Israeli estimates.
Late last week, the militant group released new galling videos of two emaciated Israeli hostages held in Gaza, which have horrified Israelis and added even more pressure on prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire with Hamas, even as his government considers another expansion of the nearly 22-month war.
In one, a skeletal Evyatar David, who was taken from the Nova Music Festival, says he is digging his own grave and speaks of days without food.
As global outrage over the rising famine in and bombardment of Gaza surges, UN agencies warn that the airdrops are insufficient and Israel must let in far more aid by land.
Tamara al-Rifai, a spokesperson for the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, said airdrops are 100 times more expensive than their equivalent by land – and while the UN is grateful for any breakthrough of aid and the airdrops are “equal to the content of ten trucks.”
She said the most cost-efficient, effective, and safest way of bringing in supplies and food – not Israel “weaponising aid and food as a method of war.”
She said while the UN is grateful for any breakthrough of aid and the airdrops are “equal to the content of ten trucks.”
She said the most cost-efficient, effective, and safest way of bringing food, medical supplies, and hygiene items for women to Gaza is opening the crossings.
“If there is enough political will to bring about airdrops, there has to be political will to put pressure on the government of Israel to open crossings and to allow the UN to do its job.”
Last year, the Washington DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated that one four-hour round trip by a C-130 military plane costs around $32,000 – while a trip by truck is estimated at around $970 from Cairo to Rafah in southern Gaza (when that route was still possible).
Back in Gaza, local medics reported that at least 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes on Gaza on Monday, including 10 seeking aid at aid distribution sites run by the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
The UN says more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive aid in the enclave in just a few months, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating nearby.
The Israeli military has repeatedly denied targeting aid seekers and has said it has previously only fired in the vicinity of aid distribution centres.
As the war rages on, the families in ravaged Gaza are dying, trying to find food.
“We thank all the countries that have helped and are trying to help, but the only solution is to open the crossing and distribute supplies,” said Moatasem as he attended the funeral of his cousin Oday.
“My cousin went to bring a meal to feed his family and children, but returned to them dead.”
