Aid convoy is on its way to bring hope to Gaza
Looking ahead through his windscreen, and back in his rear view mirror, Mustafa al Qadri can see the rest of the long convoy heading towards the Jordan Valley. We pass through sand-coloured, rocky land that descends in the direction of the Dead Sea, towards Israel and eventually Gaza.
First the convoy must pass through Israeli customs at the King Hussein/Allenby Bridge border crossing. Then it is on to the Erez crossing into Gaza where aid will be transferred from the World Food Program to local drivers.
Mustafa is headed to a place where Israeli settlers have blocked roads and where, deep inside the war zone, criminal gangs hijack aid trucks. But on this sunny winter morning, the driver is happy.
“We are taking aid like food and medicine to our brothers in Gaza,” he says.
The word “brother” comes up again and again in his answers. He is not just talking about shared humanity or Arab brotherhood, but also the fact that many Jordanians have Palestinian roots.
Mustafa says, “It is a good deed to provide this aid. It makes me happy.”
Drivers wave to spectators and blow their horns. Gaza is a popular issue in Jordan. This noise competes with the sirens of the police escort, which also includes two trucks equipped with machine guns. Of course, these escorts will not enter Israel, much less Gaza.
This latest mission involves 120 trucks – the largest since the war began in October 2023. Jordan’s aid campaign is a sign to Gazans that – at least by their neighbors – they have not been forgotten. Jordan’s leader, King Abdullah II, has personally led the kingdom’s efforts to get food, medicine and fuel into Gaza.
The international community has promised to increase aid once a ceasefire is established. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “It is vital that this ceasefire removes significant security and political obstacles to delivering aid across Gaza.” “The humanitarian situation is at catastrophic levels.” Ninety percent of Gaza’s 2.2 million people are displaced. Up to two million depend on aid.
It comes after a 15-month conflict in which the United Nations and aid agencies have accused Israel of repeatedly blocking or delaying deliveries of vital food, medicine and fuel. Israel has denied obstructing the aid. But at one time the United States threatened to cut off military aid to Israel due to the low level of aid reaching Gaza.
In Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, a BBC journalist witnessed heart-touching scenes of exhausted children struggling with each other as they queued for food. There is tired anger among the youth who come every day to collect rice or bread to bring home to their families.
Farah Khalid Bassal, 10, from Al Zaytoun said she had come so her nine siblings could be fed. She was a pale, smiling child waiting at a center run by the World Food Kitchen, seven of whose aid workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike last April. Farah’s family is separated from her father who lives in the north of the Gaza Strip. She told our reporter that she constantly dreamed about the ceasefire.
“I want to go back to my home and want my father to return to us, and for flour to be available to us.”
Children of all age groups were standing in the queue waiting for the distribution of rice.
Lamis Mohammed Al Mizari is 16 years old and originally from Gaza City. She now lives in a tent with eight family members. Lamiz looks back at her pre-war attitude towards food with almost disbelief.
“I was picky, when my mom made cauliflower, I used to complain about it, saying ‘We’re eating cauliflower every day, I need a different meal with meat or chicken,’ but now I eat everything. Well, good and bad. Animals don’t eat the food we eat.”
He explained how hunger creates family tension.
“When I tell my mother that I won’t be in the queue today, she says to me, ‘What will we eat then? Should we keep looking at the sky?’ I keep thinking that if I don’t come, we won’t get anything to eat. Earlier I used to think about where to go, what to play, when to go to bed, my own room. There was a kitchen and I welcomed guests.”
After collecting her pot of rice, Lemis heads home, passing the line of adults and children who have come to the kitchen. She is muttering to herself as she disappears into the morning crowd.
Back in Amman, they are preparing more aid for delivery to Gaza. The Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization says it could ship 150 truckloads a day to Gaza if permission is granted. There is no lack of will power. Aid agencies, the United Nations and other groups are ready. They – all of them – are waiting for Gaza to fully open to aid and peace.
Additional reporting by Alice Doyard, Suha Cover and Moose Campbell
