The Royal Jordanian Air Pressure’s eighth Squadron unloads humanitarian help at a helipad in Gaza.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
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Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
AL-QARARA, Gaza Strip — With simply 5 minutes on the bottom, Jordanian air drive crew members rush to unload cardboard packing containers from the again of a Black Hawk helicopter on the tarmac. Within the distance, previous a wire fence, is the rubble: toppled buildings and concrete shells of broken high-rise residences.
Jordan’s Royal Air Pressure started a brand new help operation to Gaza quickly after the ceasefire started final month between Israel and Hamas. It has been test-running 16 helicopter flights a day inside Israel’s self-declared buffer zone. Delivering help into Gaza by land nonetheless faces appreciable obstacles after greater than a yr of warfare.
Mission commander Col. Naji Azzam Bani Nasr mentioned the Jordanian operation, which NPR joined final Sunday, was geared toward getting important medicines to Gaza hospitals.
“Anesthesia, medicines for power ailments — these are the issues they lack in Gaza hospitals they usually want it very quick,” he mentioned on the tarmac at Jordan’s King Abdullah II airbase. Bani Nasr mentioned as of Feb. 9, the air drive had delivered virtually 100 tons of help through the operation.
The Royal Jordanian Air Pressure’s eighth Squadron on its technique to Gaza on Feb. 9.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
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Members of the Royal Jordanian Air Pressure’s eighth Squadron head again to King Abdullah II Air Base after delivering important help to Gaza.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
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Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
Jordan operates two discipline hospitals in Gaza, one established in 2009 and a second which started working after the beginning of the Gaza warfare in October 2023.
Touching down in southern Gaza through the first Jordanian air raise of the day, the concrete touchdown discipline inside Israel’s self-declared buffer zone was empty. Past a fence, three vans have been ready to be loaded. As every flight unloaded, one other was poised to land.
NPR was not allowed to take images from the bottom of the destruction — a ban imposed by Israel, Jordanian army officers mentioned. However the extent of the devastation was clearly seen from the air.
Over Israel, bright-green farm fields and communities with swimming swimming pools dotted the panorama. From the air, the pale blue of the Mediterranean Sea was the one spot of shade crossing into Gaza, the place destroyed and broken concrete buildings have been a bleak palette of grey.
A view of Gaza from a Black Hawk helicopter after 15 months of battle.
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Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
The fence marking Israel’s self-declared buffer zone with Gaza is seen from a Black Hawk helicopter.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
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Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
Sunday’s journey was a uncommon glimpse for international journalists on the bottom within the devastated Palestinian territory. Gaza-based Palestinian journalists have lined the warfare from the beginning, with 82 journalists killed in 2024 by the Israeli army, in keeping with the Committee to Defend Journalists. However Israel largely bans international journalists from Gaza. The 2-hour flight moved alongside the Useless Sea that separates Israel from Jordan, over Israel and touched down in southern Gaza, close to the city of al-Qarara.
The United Nations says greater than two-thirds of Gaza’s buildings have been broken or destroyed because the warfare started and 90% of the inhabitants displaced. A fragile ceasefire which took impact on Jan. 19 known as for Israel to extend the variety of help vans throughout its land borders with Gaza, however help teams say many badly wanted medical and gasoline provides stay restricted.
“We began utilizing land routes after we might however generally there’s a want for some commodities like drugs, some gear and a few high-value meals gadgets for kids we have to get to Gaza rapidly,” says Hussein Shibli, director of the Jordan Hashemite Charity Group, which organizes the help shipments with the army.
Jordan, together with different nations, had beforehand dropped help pallets with parachutes from cargo planes over Gaza. However the drops have been depending on climate, with some touchdown within the sea. At the least 20 folks both drowned making an attempt to retrieve the help or have been killed when pallets landed on them, in keeping with Gaza well being authorities.
It is usually troublesome to make sure distribution to those that most want the help with common air drops.
Jordan is a key U.S. safety accomplice. Lots of the Jordanian Black Hawk pilots on the help mission have been educated within the U.S.
A Black Hawk helicopter is seen prepared for takeoff, carrying crucial provides as a part of Jordan’s ongoing humanitarian air bridge to the Gaza Strip.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
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Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
Every Black Hawk can carry one ton of cargo — far lower than the roughly 20 tons a truck can carry — and flying in help is rather more costly. Air shipments, like help delivered by truck, should nonetheless be cleared prematurely by Israeli authorities.
Shibli mentioned Jordan was contemplating whether or not to proceed the air bridge to complement land deliveries. Jordanian authorities say this Sunday’s flights would be the final within the check program, and it is unclear when they could resume.
