On the road with truck drivers carrying aid to Gaza

Ahead through the windshield and behind him in the rearview mirror, Mustafa al-Qadri sees the rest of the long convoy heading for the Jordan Valley. We pass through rocky, sand-colored land that descends in the direction of the Dead Sea, to Israel, and eventually to Gaza.

The convoy must first pass through Israeli customs at the King Hussein/Allenby Bridge border crossing. It then goes to the Erez crossing into Gaza, where the aid will be delivered by local drivers from the World Food Programme.

Mustafa heads to a place where Israeli settlers have blocked the roads and where, in the war zone itself, criminal gangs are seizing aid trucks. But on this sunny winter morning, the driver is happy.

“We are bringing aid in the form of food and medicine to our brothers in Gaza,” he says.

In his answers, the word “brothers” is heard repeatedly. He is referring not only to common humanity or Arab brotherhood, but to the fact that so many Jordanians have Palestinian roots.

“Delivering this aid is a good thing. It makes me happy,” Mustafa says.

Drivers wave to observers and honk. Gaza is a popular business in Jordan. The sirens of the police escort, including two trucks with machine guns, compete with the noise. Of course, these escorts will not cross Israel, much less Gaza.

This latest mission involves 120 trucks – the largest since the war began in October 2023. The Jordanian aid operation is a sign to the people of Gaza that – at least by their neighbors – they are not forgotten. Jordan’s leader, King Abdullah II, personally pushed the Kingdom’s efforts to deliver food, medicine and fuel to Gaza.

The international community has pledged to increase aid after the ceasefire. “It is imperative that this cease-fire removes significant security and political obstacles to the delivery of aid through Gaza,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “The humanitarian situation is at a catastrophic level.” Ninety percent of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents are displaced. Up to two million depends on the aid.

It comes after 15 months of conflict, during which the UN and aid agencies have accused Israel of repeatedly blocking or delaying the distribution of vital food, medicine and fuel. Israel denies it is blocking the aid. But at one point the United States threatened to cut military aid to Israel because of the low level of aid going to Gaza.

In Deir el-Bal, central Gaza, a BBC journalist witnessed harrowing scenes of exhausted children fighting each other as they queued for food. A weary mood breaks among the young people who come each day to fetch rice or bread to bring to their families.

Ten-year-old Farah Khaled Bassal from Al Zaitoun said she came so her nine siblings could be fed. A small, smiling child, she waited at the center of the World Food Kitchens organization, whose seven employees were killed in an Israeli airstrike last April. Farah’s family is separated from his father, who is in the northern Gaza Strip. She told our correspondent that she constantly dreams of a ceasefire.

“I want to return to our home and for my father to return to us and for the torment to be for us.”

There were children of all ages waiting in line to be served rice.

Lamis Mohammad Al Mizari is 16 years old and comes from Gaza City. Now she lives in a tent with eight family members. Lamis looks back on his pre-war attitude towards food with almost disbelief.

“I used to be picky when my mum made cauliflower, I’d complain about it, say ‘we eat cauliflower every day, I want another meal with meat or chicken’, but now I eat everything, the good and the bad. Animals don’t eat the food we eat.’

She explained how hunger creates tension in the family.

“When I tell my mom that I won’t stand in line today, she says to me, ‘What are we going to eat then? Should I keep looking at the sky?” I have to come here, I keep thinking that if I don’t come, we won’t find anything to eat in the past, I used to think where to go, what to play, what to go I had my own room, I had a living room and I guests”.

After filling a pot of rice, Lamis walks home, past a line of adults and children who have come to the kitchen. She mutters to herself as she disappears into the morning crowd.

Back in Oman, they are preparing more aid for delivery to Gaza. Jordan’s Hashemite charity says it could load 150 trucks a day for Gaza if it gave the good. There is no lack of desire. Aid agencies, the UN and other groups are ready. They – all of them – are waiting for Gaza to be fully opened to aid and peace.

Additional reporting by Alyssa Doyard, Suhi Kawar and Muse Campbell