By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Jehad Shalbak
Near KISSUFIM, Gaza Strip (Reuters) – Jordan’s air force launched on Tuesday the biggest air bridge so far to bring urgent medical supplies to Gaza under a U.S.-sponsored deal to step up deliveries following a ceasefire, officials said.
The operation involves 16 helicopter flights a day that will at first deliver at least 160 tonnes of life-saving medical supplies over a week to hospitals and medical centres, army officials said.
Under an agreement sponsored by the U.S., Israel had allowed Jordan to deliver aid to a designated location near Israel’s Kissufim border crossing with the devastated Gaza Strip.
A helicopter pad in a spot that lies in a central area connecting the northern and southern parts of the enclave would help facilitate speedier deliveries, according to aid officials.
U.N. agencies led by the World Food Programme would then deliver them directly to medical centres and hospitals.
“More aid is needed for the Palestinian people in Gaza. There is a terrifying state of destruction. There is a terrifying state of suffering that the Palestinian people are living,” Jordan’s Minister of State for Communications Mohamed Momani told reporters at an air base where Black Hawk helicopters were taking off.
Throughout the 15-month war, the U.N. has described its humanitarian operation as opportunistic – facing problems with Israel’s military operations, access restrictions by Israel, and more recently looting by Gazan armed gangs.
Since an agreement on a ceasefire, Jordan has sent seven overland convoys with at least 540 trucks through a corridor across the Israeli-occupied West Bank to Gaza, officials said.
“In this air corridor we deliver that urgent aid that could be damaged by their transport on trucks,” Brigadier General Mustafa al-Hayari said.
The staunch U.S. ally has arranged at least 147 convoys comprising 5,569 trucks since the conflict and also spearheaded 391 air drops by its air force alongside a coalition of Western and Arab countries.
King Abdullah has been lobbying Washington to push Israel to expand the aid corridor from Jordan to allow large volumes of aid to quickly cross.
The monarch has said Israel is to blame for delaying aid by hurdles and delaying tactics that have worsened the humanitarian plight of over 2 million people who live in the enclave. Israel denies it impedes aid flows.
(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Rod Nickel)
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