What a New York Times photographer saw during an airdrop in Gaza
The huge rear gate of the Jordanian Air Force cargo plane slowly lowers like a rigid iron jaw, revealing a hazy blue sky and, far below, the battered landscape of northern Gaza.Inside the plane's cavernous hold, supplies delivered by the crew are lined up in neat rows: chest-high bundles of boxes stacked on wooden pallets, each bound with shrink-wrap and heavy straps and marked with images of the flag of Jordan.Now, as light and sound rush in, the bundles slide along rollers in the floor and disappear out the door, floating beneath billowing parachutes as a silent, and quite possibly inadequate, offering to the desperate populace below.With humanitarian groups and others sounding the alarm about a looming famine in northern Gaza and widespread hunger across the territory, airdrops are ...