Dubai: The airlift of emergency aid for the displaced and injured in Gaza ordered by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, entered its fifth day on Friday.
A Boeing 747 and two C130s rushed 22 tonnes of medical supplies for the World Health Organisation (WHO) and 35,000 blankets for UNWRA to Amman for onward shipment by truck into Gaza.
The total value of the operation, which now includes 11 airlifts from Dubai, has reached about Dh10.1 million.
Jordan authorities have committed to keep the Jordanian side of border crossings into Israel open during the Eid holiday to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
While there have been some bottlenecks in crossing into Gaza, the International Humanitarian City (IHC) shipments from Dubai have moved through without disruption or incidents so far.
The pressure for medical supplies has increased significantly, with UNWRA reporting more than 5,273 injured Palestinians.
The WHO shipment included a range of antibiotics, painkillers, and surgical supplies.
Gaza’s medical infrastructure has suffered severe degradation under the Israeli bombardment. Hospitals and other medical facilities have been overwhelmed by large numbers of wounded civilians who face long and often agonising waits for treatment.
Earlier on Thursday, Shaikh Mohammad had ordered a Boeing 747 cargo aircraft to be put at the disposal of IHC until Sunday.
He also directed IHC to source other high-capacity aircrafts, such as the Antinov, to participate in the airlift operation for Gaza. This massive airlift operation will bring the total cargo capacity to 150 tonnes of aid per day delivered to Jordan for passage to Gaza.
Commissioner General Pierre Krähenbühl of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) for Palestine Refugees has thanked Shaikh Mohammad for his personal commitment and support in alleviating the distress of tens of thousands of Gazans.
Emergency supplies have come from stocks at IHC, “the world’s largest logistics centre for emergency aid”.
New stocks are being procured to ship to Gaza and replenish supplies. Principal donors to the operation are UNWRA, Emirates Red Crescent, WHO, Dubai Airwing, IHC and the UN World Food Programme.
From Amman, aid cargoes are then loaded onto trucks for transport into Gaza. The IHC made an urgent appeal to all relevant authorities to keep both the Allenby bridge and Kerem Shalom border crossing open during the Eid holiday to ensure that humanitarian aid shipments make it in to Gaza without delay.
