Despair among aid flight crews as airdrops bring only meagre relief for Gaza's starving

As famine is declared, dropping food pallets from the sky is largely futile but with roads closed options are limited.

- Oliver Marsden

As the Jordanian C-130 Hercules swooped over Gaza City, the rear doors yawned open and the first payload of aid rolled out of the belly of the aircraft. Parachutes bloomed, dropping two tonnes of food and medicine.

For the Jordanian air force personnel, many of whom have flown almost 100 aid drops over Gaza, the work is vital, offering them a chance to do something that may alleviate some small sliver of suffering for the Palestinians below. "I'm a human and I hate to see other humans like that," flight engineer Mohammad shouted over the rattle of the plane. “I hope this war ends soon, God willing.”

But they also know that dropping pallets of food from 2,500ft is both the most expensive and least effective way to deliver aid.

In the four weeks since Jordan resumed humanitarian drops - supported by France, Germany, the UAE, the Netherlands and Singapore - they have delivered 785 tonnes of aid. This would have been enough to feed half the 2.1 million population of Gaza for a single day. Each drop costs £24,000, compared with £720 for a Cairo-Gaza lorry, which carries double the aid, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.