On board a Jordanian aid drop flight over devastated northern Gaza: ‘The last resort’
The destruction of north Gaza slides into view as the rear doors of the Jordanian C-130 aircraft yawn open.
Towns – that have been flattened into grey dust – edge what was once farmlands, now chewed up by a chaotic snarl of tank tracks. Whole neighbourhoods have been obliterated to the point they look like the ashy bottom of a fire hearth. The level of devastation is chilling.
From this height you cannot see the estimated 300,000 Palestinians who still live in this hellish moonscape, with little to no supplies. Hundreds of thousands of people who the United Nations believe are one step away from – if not already gripped by – famine. A place where families are reduced to eating animal feed and drinking toilet water. A place where according to the United Nations, children are not just dying from bombing but also from hunger.
Against that backdrop, the 16 wooden pallets loaded with boxes of food – and topped by parachutes – that line the bottom of this military transport plane seem woefully insufficient.
has launched a ferocious bombardment and a crippling siege of Gaza in its war to “eliminate” Hamas in the wake of the deadly 7 October attacks. That has helped lead to the north of the enclave
