Airdrops of aid set off desperate scramble in Gaza

OVER THE GAZA STRIP — The Jordanian air force C-130 Hercules cargo plane banked in a slow arc over the Mediterranean, pointing its nose toward Gaza for its approach — the final stage of the intricate ballet that is dropping aid over the war-ravaged enclave.

- BY NABIH BULOS AND BILAL SHBEIR

PARACHUTES drop humanitarian aid over the Rafah area in Gaza because of a blockade imposed by Israel.

Earlier, in a cavernous hangar at a Royal Jordanian Air Force base, soldiers from Jordan, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates and Singapore assembled to prepare the 79 tons of rice, sugar, pasta, tomato paste, dates and other basic foodstuffs set for the day’s drop.

Despite the sweltering heat, the soldiers stationed at King Abdullah II Air Base worked quickly, the hangar an ants’ nest of activity as they secured 1-ton piles of aid boxes to pallets, wrapped them in protective fabric, then tightened the rigging before using a forklift to hoist a parachute above each one.

No less active were the crews of the seven dark-gray C-130s arrayed on the tarmac nearby, their bellies open as loadmasters prepared the planes for their cargo.

"We have to get a 100% success rate for the drops," said Phille, a Belgian soldier whose tattoos, muscular build and clean-shaven head belied the gentle way he spoke as he tied a low-velocity parachute to a pallet. He gave his nickname, in line with the Belgian military’s policy.

"Everyone works in a chain, and knows exactly what they need to do," he said.

Despite all that effort, everyone at the base that day knew that the multinational air bridge to Gaza was a wildly inefficient solution to a problem that by rights should never have existed.

Since March, Israel has kept the enclave under a near-total blockade, justifying the move as necessary to prevent aid from benefiting Hamas. The United Nations, dozens of aid organizations and Western officials have all rejected that claim and accuse Israel of deliberately starving the enclave’s 2.1 million people.