from Jordan, humanitarian aid airdrop operations continue to the Gaza Strip

Faced with the difficulties of transporting humanitarian aid by road to the Palestinian enclave, several countries have recently parachuted cargoes there, notably Jordan with France.

Published


Reading time: 1 min

An Egyptian plane at a military airport in Jordan before an operation to drop aid packages over the northern Gaza Strip.  (JORDAN ARMY / AFP)

Parcels falling from the sky, mainly from Jordan. On the Jordanian Abdallah II military base in Malka, 30 kilometers from the capital Amman, in addition to the three Jordanian military planes, three American planes were present on Wednesday March 6, as well as an Egyptian plane and a French plane. This is the largest airdrop operation organized in Gaza.

A few hours before takeoff, the same ritual takes place for the thirty air soldiers of the Jordanian army. Before the airdrop operation on Gaza, several soldiers wrote little words on the packages intended for the children of Gaza. “I wrote on behalf of our children to the children of Gaza; on behalf of Faad, of Nordine, of Souliman, of Ali… We say that we think of them and we just hope that our voices reach them”explains one of the Jordanian soldiers.

An international coalition to organize these deliveries

In the packages, there is pasta, rice, but also flour and typical Palestinian dishes, such as magloubeh. After almost twenty days of airdrops, the Jordanian army requested logistical support from the French, Emirati, Egyptian and American armies to have more planes and increase the number of airdrops from Amman. “For now, everything that will be in the boxes has been donated by Jordan, which manages this partexplains Lieutenant-Colonel Rudy, one of the leaders of the French army in Jordan. We take care of the container and the plane to allow it to be delivered to Gaza.” Jordan has equipment, specifies the lieutenant-colonel, “but not enough compared to the needs of Gazans currently. And that is why the king asked that an international coalition be formed in this operation to help them.”

During the flight, which lasted two hours, the pilot initially headed towards the coast of Tel Aviv, before following the Mediterranean Sea and heading due south towards Gaza.


source site-33