On board a Jordanian aid plane: Flying above Gaza, a silent crew and the weight of history

As aid missions intensify, Jordanian crews continue air drops over Gaza amid mounting international pressure on Israel

The flight engineer of the Jordanian military plane skims over the cockpit gauges as the aircraft climbs out of an airbase near Amman, on its way to drop parcels of aid into Gaza by parachute.

He and the other crew members on the C-130H transport plane know the drill, having flown dozens of missions as part of a renewed international effort based in Jordan to supply war-stricken Gaza.

“After more than 50 runs, it becomes routine,” said the engineer, who did not want his name to be disclosed as per military rules.

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Aid is dropped into Gaza from a C-130 aircraft. Francesca Maria Lorenzini for The National

The air drops resumed last month after Israel, under mounting international pressure over the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza, allowed the aid deliveries to resume. The first consignment had started in November 2023, a month after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel and killed 1,200 people.

The engineer said that, while Jordan lacks the enormous aircraft operated by some nations, the four-engine C-130 has consistently proven more than capable of supporting humanitarian supply missions over the past two decades.

“The C-130 is both flexible and reliable,” he said, adding that although other countries deliver aid for Gaza to Jordan using larger C-17 aircraft, the cargo is ultimately transferred to smaller C-130s for onward distribution.

The latest aid dropped by Jordan included 20 tonnes of baby formula and other food supplies. Francesca Maria Lorenzini for The National

The war, and the possibility that the Palestinians would experience a third mass displacement in less than a decade, has put enormous political pressure on Jordan. A large proportion of the kingdom’s population of ten million are of Palestinian origin. The government said it would do all it could to help the Palestinians, as long as it falls within the confines of the 1994 peace treaty with Israel.

An open channel with Israel, as well as US support, enabled Jordan to open the air drop route. Around 600 tonnes have been parachuted into Gaza since the relaunch of the operation on July 27, a significant acceleration but a paltry volume compared with the needs of the population in the Strip.

Gaza has been under the rule of Hamas for almost two decades. Jordanian officials have repeatedly said that the air route is no substitute for unfettered humanitarian land access to Gaza.

The C-130H plane on Sunday dropped 20 tonnes of baby formula and other food supplies. Other countries such as the Netherlands and Italy are participating in the operation – with one plane returning to Jordan and the other taking off. In total, 93 tonnes of aid were sent from Jordan on Sunday.

View from window as aircraft flew over Gaza during the mission. Khaled Yacoub Oweis / The National

The flight engineer, a bespectacled officer, recounted previous missions he had been on. He has flown to Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, and Indonesia. The one to Gaza, however, was into an intense war zone.

The aircrew took the plane to 17,000 feet, flying over the Mediterranean before descending to 2,000 feet, when the cargo master and three personnel released the electronically guided cargo from the hold. The flying time over Gaza was only a few minutes.

The area of the drop-off is only a short flight from Amman but separated by the physical and political restraints of an occupation and militant forces which the kingdom has sought to keep from spreading on its own soil.

This year, the kingdom banned the Muslim Brotherhood, accusing the group of jeopardising national security because some of its ranks had sought to manufacture weapons in Jordan.

Hamas is an offshoot of the Brotherhood, and many Palestinians in Gaza have relatives in Jordan.

The Jordanian crew outside the aid aircraft. Francesca Maria Lorenzini for The National

The young airman who performed the mission on Sunday boarded a microbus to take his team back to headquarters, driving along the inhospitable desert confines of Jordan.

The driver put on music, and the passengers sank into checking their mobile phones. Under military regulations, they cannot express political opinions or discuss the route of the C-130H and the logistics involved in flying over Israeli-controlled airspace.

The six crew in the cockpit – comprising two pilots, the flight engineer, a navigator, a trainee, and a trainer – didn’t exchange many words. However, many airmen come from areas in Jordan that has had historic connections to Palestine, where intermarriages, commercial exchange, and support for the Palestinian cause have built a bond that has shaped modern Jordan and made its trajectory dependent on developments in Palestine.