Flying Over Gaza

For La Repubblica, together with Fabio Tonacci, we were the first Italian journalists to fly over the skies of Gaza, destroyed by over 5 months of continuous Israeli bombardments, where homes have turned into rubble and daily hatred and violence are a grim reality.

“At noon, the sun casts an airplane shadow on what little remains. The shadow cuts through the debris, climbs over buildings that are no longer, crosses roads that are no longer roads, tramples on remnants of homes, and advances over urban craters. The air is clear, offering an unprecedented perspective of the destruction. From up here, at six hundred meters altitude, everything is visible. The passage of the shadow over the remains of Gaza, straight and impassive, has something obscene, something unbearable. ‘Five minutes!’ shouts the mission leader, a 34-year-old from Amman who is part of the Jordanian Special Forces. He has the altimeter strapped to his wrist and the most daunting task. The drop zone is only five minutes away, and the hatch is already open.

We’re going to drop food to the hungry, that’s what it’s about. We’ll parachute tuna, rice, fortified flour with folic acid, canned meat, and powdered milk. The landing point will be a dice roll with the wind: it all depends on the currents, once one of the loads landed in Israel. Two million hands stretched in the air are waiting to receive the aid that doesn’t arrive sufficiently by land, because the trucks that can enter the Strip are few compared to the needs of an entire people on the brink of famine.”

by Fabio Tonacci for La Repubblica. The complete report can be found HERE