Dutch military plane readied to contribute to food drops in Gaza

At Eindhoven Airport, a Dutch military transport plane was prepared for departure to Jordan on Tuesday. The C-130 aircraft will depart Wednesday morning and will begin a daily relief drop over the Gaza Strip for two weeks starting Friday.

Sixteen pallets, each weighing 1,000 kilograms, will be dropped daily, said a detachment commander who will be on the flight on Wednesday. The packages primarily contain water and food, such as rice, flour, and baby food. Sometimes medical supplies are also included.

The contents will be provided by a Jordanian aid organization. “They will consider where the population needs them most.” Items needed for the drops, such as pallets and parachutes, were loaded in Eindhoven on Tuesday.

Besides the Netherlands, other countries are also conducting food drops over Gaza, including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Spain, France, and Germany. Under Jordan’s leadership, the countries coordinate their locations. The exact locations within these drop zones are not yet known. It depends, among other things, on the weather conditions. “All the packages are parachuted out of the plane. It doesn’t have any steering, so we have to take the wind into account.”

International aid organizations have criticized the airdrops because they are dangerous. People in Gaza have previously been injured and killed. “The operation is indeed not without risks,” said the commander. “That’s why we take the weather into account, but also the location and the way we drop. The lower we fly, the more precisely we can drop the load.”

The commander is also aware of the criticism that a plane can only carry relatively few aid supplies compared to the many trucks parked at the border and not being allowed in by Israel. He still considers the drops necessary. “I was asked to carry out this mission, and the numbers are so significant that it will at least alleviate some of the suffering of the people in Gaza.”

As of August 5, Israel has killed 61,020 people, including at least 18,430 children, in the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera reported based on the latest figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry. That is one out of every 36 people in Gaza dead, and over 90 people killed per day since this war started on October 7, 2023, provoked by a Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, killing 1,137 people. The Gaza death toll does not include the thousands of missing people buried under the rubble.

At least 150,671 people in the Gaza Strip are injured, including 40,500 children and babies. 188 people have starved to death in Gaza due to Israel restricting aid. 94 of them were children and babies. One in ten children in Gaza are malnourished.