We were stuck in a holding pattern, circling in Jordanian airspace near the border with Israel while awaiting the order to proceed. Our five-plane aerial convoy was part of a Jordan- and United Arab Emirates–led effort to air-drop food into the Gaza Strip, to mitigate the disastrous humanitarian conditions that its population is facing almost two years into the war. Once we received permission, we flew over Israel and out to the Mediterranean Sea. And then, as we descended to 2,000 feet, I was able to see my home for the first time in 20 years.
In some desolated areas, there was nothing left standing. But I was also able to spot some pockets of life that had not yet been entirely destroyed. Tents covered long stretches of the dusty landscape. And from above, I could see Israel Defense Forces convoys and camps, maneuvering tanks, and the flash of ongoing strikes. The back of the plane opened, and I watched the pallets of aid slide out and deploy their parachutes.
The airdrop was a stop-gap solution; it could not possibly deliver aid at the necessary scale. But it was also a pragmatic way to surge food to Gaza’s civilian population. Delivering food by truck is a time-consuming process requiring coordination with the Israeli authorities and cooperation with local NGOs to distribute the aid within the Strip. By early summer, as Israeli restrictions effectively halted such deliveries, the situation within Gaza grew desperate. Even after deliveries resumed, much of the population remained dangerously malnourished.
Airdrops allow civilians immediate and direct access to food, bypassing the complicated and dangerous process of delivery and distribution on the ground. The method isn’t without its challenges. Dropping heavy packages runs the risk of injuring people on the ground. On a per-pound basis, it’s a much more expensive way to deliver the food. But at the moment, no perfect mechanism exists for delivering aid in Gaza. And as the Israeli military’s ground invasion of Gaza City in the north promises to compound the suffering of the Strip’s civilians, every bit of aid helps.
I spent my time at the King Abdullah air-force base in Jordan, where the flights originated, talking with crews and volunteers about why they backed the aid drops. Many cited the difficulty of getting aid into the Strip; the drops gave them a chance to help. Indonesia sent two C-130 aircraft to participate in the airdrops. The country lacks diplomatic relations with Israel, but the airdrops gave it a mechanism to help Palestinian civilians. And beyond the immediate assistance they provided, the airdrops demonstrated something else, too: Gaza’s airspace can be reopened, in a way that addresses Israel’s security concerns.
Seeing Gaza in ruins has redoubled my determination to do two things. The first is to expose Hamas’s criminality and the futility of its terror, which has led to the annihilation of Gaza. And the second is to secure a better future for the people of Gaza, by pushing for pragmatic solutions.
The insistence on comprehensive solutions has held back progress. We cannot wait until the fighting stops, the hostages are released, and Hamas retreats before starting to make necessary changes. Instead of arguing about a day-after plan, discussions should focus on today. I’ve been pushing for greater international cooperation, the involvement of regional actors in stabilization, and community-centric governance—under the auspices of what I’ve called the Gaza Transitional Service.
But any transitional plan should focus on restoring access to the Strip, with an independent mechanism for entry and exit, and freedom of movement within it, in a manner that addresses Israeli security needs. The most creative solutions are also, given the current constraints, perhaps the most pragmatic. An artificial peninsula could be constructed on the coast of the Gaza Strip, built in phases from the rubble that the war has produced. Even a small peninsula could host a basic airfield and seaport to facilitate the movement of people and aid, severing Gaza’s unhealthy dependency on Israel and Egypt. And over time, it could be enlarged to accommodate expanded facilities. Multilateral parties trusted by Israel, the Palestinians, and the United States could provide technical, security, and logistical support and services to ensure compliance with necessary codes and standards.
The same pragmatism on display in the flights over Gaza provides the best chance for overcoming entrenched divisions and narratives. The immediacy of the horror unfolding in Gaza City, and the cataclysmic conditions facing civilians there, should not foreclose the possibility of thinking about a better future. Gaza’s population, which has suffered immensely, is in desperate need of security, prosperity, stability, and a fundamentally different path forward.
The post Flying Over My Battered Homeland appeared first on The Atlantic.
