In front of him through his windshield, and behind him in the rearview mirror, Mustafa Al-Qadiri can see the rest of the long convoy heading towards the Jordan Valley. We pass through sand-coloured rocky terrain that slopes down towards the Dead Sea, towards Israel and eventually into Gaza.
First, the convoy must pass through Israeli customs at the King Hussein/Allenby Bridge border crossing. Then they will head to the Erez crossing into Gaza, where the aid will be transferred to local drivers from the World Food Programme.
Mustafa heads towards a place where Israeli settlers have blocked roads, and where, within the war zone itself, criminal gangs are hijacking aid trucks. But on this sunny winter morning, the driver is happy.
He says: “We carry aid such as food and medicine for our brothers in Gaza.”
The word “brothers” is repeated in his answers. It refers not only to common humanity, or Arab brotherhood, but to the fact that many Jordanians have Palestinian roots.
“Providing this aid is a good thing,” Mustafa says. “It makes me happy.”
Drivers wave to spectators and honk their horns. Gaza is a popular issue in Jordan. The noise competes with the sirens of police escorts, including two trucks equipped with machine guns. Naturally, these escorts will not cross into Israel, let alone Gaza.
This latest mission includes 120 trucks – the largest since the war began in October 2023. The Jordanian aid operation is a signal to Gazans that – by their neighbors at least – they will not be forgotten. The Jordanian leader, King Abdullah II, personally pushed the kingdom's efforts to deliver food, medicine and fuel to Gaza.
The international community has promised to increase aid once a ceasefire is reached. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: “It is essential that the ceasefire remove the significant security and political obstacles preventing the delivery of aid to all parts of Gaza.” “The humanitarian situation has reached catastrophic levels.” 90% of Gaza's population of 2.2 million are displaced. Up to two million people depend on aid.
It comes after 15 months of conflict in which the United Nations and aid agencies have accused Israel of repeatedly preventing or delaying the distribution of vital food, medicine and fuel. Israel denies it is obstructing aid. But at one point, the United States threatened to cut off military aid to Israel due to the low level of aid reaching Gaza.
In Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, a BBC journalist witnessed poignant scenes of exhausted children wrestling with each other while queuing for food. Fatigued nerves fray among the young men who come every day to collect rice or bread and bring it home to their families.
Farah Khaled Basal, 10 years old, from the Zaytoun neighborhood, said that she came to feed her nine siblings. A thin, smiling girl was waiting at a center run by World Food Kitchens, where seven aid workers were killed in an Israeli air strike last April. Farah's family is separated from her 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, for my father to return to us, and for us to have flour.”
There were children of all age groups in line waiting for a serving of rice.
Lamis Muhammad Al-Mazrouei is 16 years old and from Gaza City. She now lives in a tent with eight family members. Lamis recalls, almost in disbelief, her attitude toward food before the war.
“I was picky. When my mom used to make cauliflower, I would complain about it, saying, 'We eat cauliflower every day, I want something different with meat or chicken,' but now I eat everything, good and bad. Animals don't eat the food we eat. “
She explained how hunger creates family tensions.
“When I told my mom I wouldn't stand in line today, she said, 'So what are we going to eat? Should we keep looking at the sky, then?' I have to come here and I keep thinking that if I don't come we won't find anything to eat. In the past, I used to think daily about where to go out, what to play, what to study, and when to go. I had my own room and kitchen, and there was a living room and I would receive guests.”
After Lamis collected the bowl of rice, she walked back into the house, passing a line of adults and children who reached the kitchen. She mumbles to herself as she disappears into the morning crowds.
Back in Amman, they are preparing more aid to deliver to Gaza. The Jordanian Hashemite Charitable Organization says it can load 150 trucks per day for Gaza if it gets the green light. There is no shortage of desire. Relief agencies, the United Nations and other groups are ready. They are all waiting for Gaza to be fully opened to aid and peace.
Additional reporting by Alice Doyard, Soha Kawar and Moss Campbell
