Qatar launches air bridge from Jordan to deliver medical aid to Gaza

Qatar on Monday launched an air bridge from Jordan to deliver urgent medical supplies to Gaza, where hospitals face severe shortages due to more than 15 months of Israeli genocide.


According to a Qatari Foreign Ministry statement, the operation began from King Abdullah II Airbase in Jordan, with helicopters carrying aid to the town of Al-Qarara in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.


The air bridge follows an earlier land route established by Qatar to transport humanitarian assistance.


The initiative involved Qatari Minister of State for International Cooperation Maryam bint Ali bin Nasser Al Misnad, Qatar’s Ambassador to Jordan Saud bin Nasser bin Jassim Al-Thani, and officials from Qatar Charity, the Qatar Fund for Development, and the Qatar Red Crescent.


Al Misnad said that since the beginning of the truce, Qatar has sent 65 relief trucks through the Jordanian border.


“Complementing this land bridge, two helicopter flights carrying vital medical aid will arrive in North Khan Younis,” she added.


She also announced that Qatar had provided 20,000 tents, transported via a land bridge from Doha to Jordan.


The Qatari airlift follows Jordan’s announcement on Jan. 28 of an intensified humanitarian air bridge to Gaza, involving several nations.


Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Al-Momani said at a press briefing in Amman that helicopters would deliver aid for eight days, conducting 18 flights daily to the Al-Qarara (Kisufim) crossing, a central point linking northern and southern Gaza.


A ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel took hold in Gaza on Jan. 19, halting the war that has caused widespread destruction and left the enclave in ruins.


Israel’s genocidal war has killed more than 47,500 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured over 111,600 since Oct. 7, 2023.


The Israeli onslaught on Gaza has left more than 11,000 people missing, with widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of many elderly people and children in one of the worst-ever global humanitarian disasters.


The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.