The view of northern Gaza from a height of 3,000 feet is apocalyptic. Not a single building appears unscathed by the violence unleashed here.
Entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble and gray dust. The frenzied criss-cross of tank tracks indicates the bloody offensives that have taken place over the past five months. It is hard to imagine that anyone could survive in this hellscape.
The Mail was one of just a handful of publications accessed by the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) to join a relief effort over Gaza on Tuesday.
Our aerial photographs show the extent of the devastation inflicted on the narrow stretch of territory since the war began.
The flight is part of a multinational effort to get desperately needed food and supplies into the besieged enclave.
The Mail (with journalist Charlie Faulkner, pictured above) was one of just a handful of publications granted access by the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) to take part in an emergency operation over Gaza on Tuesday
Aid being loaded onto C-130 by Jordanian airmen at King Abdullah II Air Base before heading to Gaza
The life-saving supplies are pushed out of the back of the military aircraft in the photo above
The Gaza Strip has been under heavy bombardment by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in response to Hamas’ brutal attack on October 7, in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.
About 134 hostages remain in Gaza, although it is feared that more than half are dead. Last week, the UN said it had ‘clear’ information that hostages were being sexually abused.
On Tuesday, relief flights from the US, Egypt and Belgium were also in the air. Britain, the Netherlands and the UAE have also sent planes.
“We are proud to be a part of this,” said an RJAF airman. ‘But that’s not enough. It is not enough.’
What cannot be understood from the air is the humanitarian disaster unfolding on the ground. Around 300,000 people are believed to be stuck in northern Gaza – an area of the Strip that aid agencies say is impossible to reach.
Food is so scarce that people have been forced to eat animal feed. At least 20 have died of malnutrition and dehydration at the northern Kamal Adwan and Shifa hospitals, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza. Most of the dead are children.
Aid agencies have warned that airdrops – each containing enough food for 6,500 people – should be a last resort as they are ineffective and dangerous.
Five people were killed on Friday when a package’s parachute failed to open on another nation’s plane.
A wave of relief ran through the crew during Tuesday’s flight when an airman held up eight fingers after the fall, indicating that all parachutes had indeed opened.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that hunger is being ‘used as a weapon of war’ with overland aid routes ‘artificially closed’ by Israel.
Gaza’s health ministry says more than 31,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7. The IDF claims that a third of the dead are terrorists.
Jamie McGoldrick, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Middle East, told the Mail that aid cuts should not be seen as an alternative solution to aid distribution. ‘They are an addition.
Jordanian airmen take a break between loading humanitarian aid onto a C-130 at King Abdullah II Air Base
This handout photo released by the Jordanian army on March 5, 2024 shows humanitarian aid being airlifted from a military plane over the Gaza Strip
Palestinians run along a street as humanitarian aid is airdropped in Gaza City on March 1, 2024
Footage taken by the Jordanian Air Force and provided to journalist Charlie Faulkner of their Aid-drop flight over Gaza
Jordanian airmen load aid bound for Gaza onto a C-130 at King Abdullah II Air Base
A member of Jordan’s Royal Airforce prepares the plane for take-off. The cargo was dropped on Gaza
Journalist Charlie Faulkner joins the aid flight over Gaza and captures from his window the devastation of Gaza below
This photo taken from Israel’s southern border with the Gaza Strip shows humanitarian aid being airdropped over the Palestinian Territory on March 13, 2024
It costs 180,000 dollars per flight and nobody knows where (the aid) is landing because of the weather,’ Mr McGoldrick said, adding that it was unlikely the vulnerable would be able to run to the landing sites and fight their way through the crowds.
The Rafah crossing is the only point of entry for goods on land. Sir. McGoldrick said the opening of other crossings “depends on… ceasefire negotiations”.
The IDF has rejected claims it is blocking aid, telling the Mail it is ‘carrying out humanitarian operations and will continue to do so’.
Meanwhile, ten warehouses run by the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO) are bursting at the seams with boxes of aid.
Compared to the flight on which Mail was a passenger—a C-130 with eight pallets—trucks can deliver 22, and a convoy consists of a minimum of 14 vehicles.
“If a truce was agreed upon, we could send all the items; medical, relief, food,’ said Ahmed Abu Alhaija, who manages JHCO warehouses.
It comes as the IDF is investigating whether it killed Marwan Issa, head of Hamas’ armed wing, in an attack on a building in the Nuseirat refugee camp on Sunday. Issa, 59, is believed to have been a mastermind of the October 7 attack.
Meanwhile, another militant, Hadi Mustafa, was reportedly taken out in a drone strike on the Lebanese city of Tire yesterday.
On Tuesday, a Hamas spokesman rejected claims that the group had accepted in principle a US proposal for a six-week ceasefire.
However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last night that there is a “strong proposal on the table right now for a ceasefire”.