Inside an airlift to Gaza. Dropping aid from above and the desperate scramble below

On the Gaza Strip – Jordan Air Force C-30 Hercules cargo plane entered a slow plateau on the Mediterranean Sea and pointed to Gaza for the final stage of the complex ballet, which helped the settlement.

Previously, a royal Jordanian Air Force Base on a cavernous hangar, Jordan, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates and Singapore soldiers, 79 tons of rice, sugar, pasta, tomato paste, history and other basic foodstuffs for daily drops.

Despite the Sweltering temperature, the soldiers placed in the King Abdullah II air base worked quickly, the hangar palette palette piles fixed the piles, the protective fabric wrapped in the fabric, then each of them squeezed the coat of arms before using a forklift to attract a parachute on each of them.

The crew of the seven dark gray C-130, which was lined up on the nearby asphalt, was not less active, and their bellies were opened while cargo managers preparing aircraft for cargoes.

Tattoos, muscular structure and a clean -shaved head of a palette ties a low -speed parachute, a gentle -believing Belgian soldier Phille, “Drops should get 100% success rate,” he said. He gave his nickname in accordance with the policy of the Belgian army.

“Everyone works in a chain and knows exactly what to do,” he said.

In spite of all this effort, everyone at the base of that day knew that the multinational air bridge going to Gaza was a crazy inefficient solution to a problem that rights should never exist.

Since March, Israel has kept the settlement under a collective blockade and justified the movement as needed to prevent help from benefiting Hamas. The United Nations, dozens of aid organization and Western officials accused this claim and Israel for deliberately hungry.

In May, Israel created the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation with the help of the United States and accused Gaza for helping. The aid groups and governments issued GHF’s efforts as insignificant, inefficient and random.

GHF’s weakly planned and executed, as it was executed, the distribution methods, the ghazance, who tried to secure the aid, died of chaos or Israeli forces, almost always falling deadly as it came under fire from the forces of Israel.

Health officials in Strip say that more than 1,800 people have been killed near GHF areas and that the groups of rights were killed, which describes GHF’s methods as “arranged killing”. Israel and the US insist that GHF is working.

In the face of daily death reports caused by swelling of international pressure and hunger – charity groups said that more than 100 children died without malnutrition this week – Israel allowed the air to continue last month.

Some world governments signed for air delivery, and their thoughts think that some aids entering Gaza are better than nothing. However, humanitarian auxiliary usually see drops as a last resort. The UN and the aid groups say that the best option is Overland-a tested and real method that brings 500 trucks loads per day from Jordan and Egypt before the war.

Contrast with air delivery is simple. A truck carries 25 tons, but the aircraft can lift less than half of this amount, and even in the case of hot air due to its difficulty in engines.

Cost is another problem: operating the C-130 cargo aircraft-Gasze Airlift’s most common aircraft type-$ 15,000 in the hour. A truck costs some of it. As a result, according to a US Air Force survey from 2016, the average food delivery of the truck costs $ 180 per ton.

After 18 palette loaded, the C-30 lifted itself up, then lazy circles to Amman, the capital of Jordan, and the pilots waited for Israeli officials to coordinate their entrance to the Ghazan airspace.

About 30 minutes later, the aircraft headed towards the southwest Tel Aviv-the palette of the palettes of the C-30 to the long steel cables extending along the body of the C-30 reduced signs. Loadmaster Mohammad cropped a line in the cable, then fixed himself, and the plane was flying over the Mediterranean and positioned himself for a flight in the center and lowered his height to 1,500 feet.

La Ten minutes to fall, Load Loadmaster said.

C-30’s cargo doors opened and the sea air hurried before Gaza appeared. Shortly after, it appeared as a brown and gray savings of all colors, and sometimes a landscape from Maw on the red edge of a demolished brick loft. Almost every structure was damaged or like a ruin.

This was a sober view. Although all the crews have seen many times – Jordan has run more than 150 aircraft since July – they pressed their faces to the windows to see the demolished landscape.

Reducing aid is a sensitive process. The attached parachutes do not have the GPS guidance system and the pallets descend to a relatively slow 5 meters per second, their weights – in most cases 1 ton – make them potentially deadly. This weekend in the center of Gaza, the 14 -year -old Muhannad Feast was crushed by a help palette while running towards him.

“We have to make AirDrop as a surprise, so people don’t gather below,” Phille said. “If we see people under the plane, we don’t give green light.”

When the signal arrived, a series of palettes went down from the railings of waiting, and their grooves opened one after the other, as they fell from behind. As the pilot went higher and progressed towards the King Abdullah II air base, the sound of the engines increased.

Parachutes, temporary tents, vine, fig trees and residential buildings, not far from the outer edge of the coastline swam.

There were a group of men and men waiting for them on the ground. After seeing the parachutes blooming, they ran towards the landing area. One of the pallets hit the roof of a building. The rest soon settled.

This building was on private property, but some men quickly scaled the walls. The two reached the roof, cut the parachute cords and dragged the ingredients. They divided them. Minutes later, each one walked away and carried a small share.

In the al-American tent camp, which was not far from there, in dozens of family-toplam, about 50-unit watched.

Mutlaq Qreishi, a 71-year-old man displaced from the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood of the Gaza City, said, “I am an old man with 10 children and grandchildren. What can these air signs can do for us? The poor, the elderly and the elderly-could not get anything.”

“This is just strong, looters,” he added. “Every time I try it. My wife just wants tea, a little milk – something from the box. Look at that palette – fell into someone’s garden. People are fighting like wild dogs.”

Nasra Al-Rash, a 48-year-old, was displaced by Gaza City with three boys and two daughters.

“We are not even allowed to run for them. We can’t get anything every time they drop food,” he said. He added that people need a “fair distribution system ız like UN and other groups.

“This is not help,” he said. “This chaos. A performance for the cameras. I have never received a single sack of flour, not a box of food, not a spoon of sugar.

Four more aircrafts above appeared and lowered their loads. Many of the inhabitants said they had landed in tents; The others stuck on the roofs.

Hanan Hadhoud, who stood near his tent, shouted at the 40 -year -old sky.

“This cannot continue. I sent my children to something for us – something – something. But young men pushed children aside,” he said. Now, when he saw the planes arrived, he and his family escaped from their tents.

That’s how we live.

Cargo was sent, the flight manager Mohammad and the plane returned to the base. Although the distance to Gaza could be covered with air within 15 minutes, the journey took an hour and 50 hours and the estimated cost is $ 200,000 to $ 250,000.

Mohammad and other crews provided loose arms operations and pack their equipment before they walked to their vans to get home. They took a last look at the plane as they ran back and prepared for the fall of the next day. Ballet started again in the hangar.

Times staff writer Bulos reported from Jordan. Shbeir, a special correspondent from Gaza.