Netherlands and Jordan jointly air drop relief aid, hospital supplies in Gaza
The Netherlands and Jordan took part in a joint mission to air drop medical supplies in Gaza on Sunday evening. The Dutch military carried out the mission with a Lockheed C-130 transport aircraft, the Dutch Ministry of Defense said. The ministry said the mission was coordinated in advance with Israel, and that the aircraft and crew members involved returned safely.
The supplies were "intended for a Jordanian field hospital" that has been in operation since 2009, the ministry said. Delivering aid over land "is the most effective way to get relief supplies to the scene on a large scale. But so far, access across national borders has been limited. That is why this air drop has now been chosen," the ministry stated.
Members of the Cabinet previously said they were considering delivering aid by air if the opportunity presented itself, but would only notify Parliament once the operation was completed. The security of the mission would require secrecy to be handled safely, said Minister of Foreign Affairs Hanke Bruins Slot, Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren, and Geoffrey van Leeuwen, the minister in charge of foreign trade and development cooperation.
The mission cost an estimated total of one million euros, the Ministry of Defense said. The money came from the budget for foreign trade and development cooperation. "Jordan previously delivered several aerial shipments to alleviate the hospital's dire situation. At the time, this also included emergency supplies that Defense supplied from its own stock. This time, the military aircraft carried out the operation jointly from an airfield in Jordan.
The Cabinet has argued several times that relief efforts would be more effective by ground if Israel would allow it to happen. It said the air drop was a possibility after the lower house of Parliament adopted a motion by a vote of 102 to 47 to consider more options to deliver aid to Gaza, such as by air or by maritime corridor.
The motion "calls on the government to follow the French and Jordanian example and deliver aid to the people of Gaza via airdrops or ships as long as this is not possible by land, and to continue this" for as long as necessary. The motion was submitted by SP, along with Volt, Denk, GroenLinks-PvdA and PvdD. The PVV, BBB, and SGP voted against the measure, while Ja21 abstained.
