Israel Gaza: BBC goes onboard plane dropping US aid into war zone - BBC News

The BBC boards a US aid flight as air drops increasingly become the last resort for foreign governments.

2 days agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsIsrael-Gaza warImage source, EPAImage caption, Dropping aid into Gaza from the sky is fast becoming a last resort way to get food to starving peopleBy Lucy WilliamsonBBC News, above the Gaza StripOne thousand miles east of Gaza, large blocks of aid are being loaded on to a US military transport plane, its crew silhouetted by the morning sun glancing over the desert landscape around Qatar's al-Udeid airbase.

They push 80 crates into the plane's cavernous interior, each canvas-wrapped block strapped to a cardboard pallet and topped with a parachute.

Feeding Gaza is now a complex, risky, multi-national operation. The RAF carried out its first two aid flights this week. France, Germany, Jordan, Egypt and the UAE have also been taking part.

This was the 18th mission flown by US forces. Dropping 40,000 ready-prepared meals into the tiny, besieged war-zone requires them to make a six-hour round trip from Doha.

It is more expensive and less efficient than other ways of delivering aid and it is also harder to control.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68686299

---