The hatch of the Airbus 400M transport aircraft opens three minutes before the drop.The view falls first to the Mediterranean Sea, glistening and turquoise, before the Gaza Strip appears, 600m below.

Glaring sunlight envelops debris as far as the eye can see.

It is impossible to recognise the 2.1 million people of the Strip who are threatened by famine after 22 months of a devastating Israeli military campaign that has reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble.

The cargo glides down the ramp and parachutes pop open, carrying the 500kg pallets of food through the air.

The view from a German military transport plane flying over the Gaza Strip to drop humanitarian aid.

A rare glimpse of Gaza

"It always feels very positive to me, because I know that we help people," says German Air Force pilot Dieter, who only wants to give his first name.

The German military joined Arab countries in dropping aid over Gaza on Aug 1, after Israel began to allow more aid into the embattled coastal enclave, including via coordinated airdrops, following months of a near-total blockade.

A dpa reporter was allowed to accompany Bundeswehr soldiers on one of those flights on Aug 5, a rare opportunity for a foreign journalist to catch a glimpse of Gaza after Oct 7, 2023, when Israel began its war following the unprecedented Hamas massacre.

Outside reporters have since been barred from entering Gaza - except on rare sanctioned trips embedded with the Israeli military, meaning the world is relying on the brave work of local Palestinian journalists to document the conflict, many of whom have been killed while doing so.

It is unclear how much of the aid dropped for Gazans from the air actually reaches those who most urgently need it.

According to German security sources over the weekend, between 50% and 100% of the aid entering the Strip is being diverted by Hamas or by criminal organisations.

Pallets of food are about to slide down the ramp of a German military transport plane.

Careful selection

The United Nations' World Food Programme has denounced the air drops of much-needed aid, calling them completely inadequate and dangerous.

"Air drops in this situation are like plasters on open wounds: expensive, risky and barely controllable," Martin Frick, the programme's representative in Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein, said in Berlin.

"In overcrowded humanitarian zones, an orderly distribution of aid supplies delivered from the air is hardly possible – the risk of injury is high, and the costs are 34 times higher than land transport," Frick said.

Luftwaffe pilot Dieter, on the other hand, believes the airdrops are safe "because our drop zone is wide enough".

Even if a parachute tears off, the load falls to the ground where nobody is standing, he says.

"We pick out our drop zones very carefully."

Humanitarian aid supplies being packed on pallets by the German Armed Forces at King Abdullah II Air Base.

Rice, flour, sugar, pasta...

The two German transport planes took off from King Abdullah II Air Base in Jordan, carrying 22 pallets of food each.

One pallet weighs about 500kg - one plane drops a total of 11 to 12 tons (10 to 11 tonnes) of aid per flight.

"We don't know in advance what we're going to get," says Lieutenant Sascha. "So far, it's a colourful mix of food, individual boxes, 20 kilos each, with all kinds of things: rice, flour, sugar, pasta, tinned food. We then pack the loads in such a way that we can drop off up to 550kg of relief supplies in one load."

Around 30 Bundeswehr soldiers pack the goods, while another 15 are deployed on the flights.

The olive green parachutes attached to the pallets are repurposed parachutes that were previously used by people, explains Sascha.

"For our system, we used materials that are freely available everywhere, which gives us the opportunity to reduce the cost per system to a few hundred euros."

View of the cockpit before the departure of a German military Airbus A400M to drop aid supplies over the Strip.

In March, Israel imposed an almost complete blockade on aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip to increase the pressure on the terrorist organisation to release the 50 remaining hostages.

As a result, aid organisations have said that famine is now unfolding in the territory, warning that the aid that has been let in since is nowhere near enough to avert the looming hunger crisis.

Since early August, Israel has relented to mounting international pressure and has not only been allowing airdrops, but around 200 lorries from the UN and other organisations have been entering the sealed-off coastal area every day.

According to the World Food Programme, more than 170,000 tons (154,220 tonnes) of food are in the region or on their way there - enough to feed the entire population of the Gaza Strip of around 2.1 million people for almost three months - if the aid is allowed in.

Real help?

On Aug 6, Israel announced a new scheme under which a limited number of approved Palestinian traders are to facilitate aid via the private sector.

The aim is to increase the amount of aid supplies for the population, prevent Hamas from looting the aid and reduce dependence on the United Nations and other international organisations, Israel said.

Since the end of May, hundreds of people have reportedly been killed by Israeli gunfire while trying to receive aid at distribution centres operated by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is backed by Israel and the United States.

The German transport flights are being kept as short as possible to minimise the risk for the crew, pilot Dieter says.

They are aware that the deployment is not going to bring about any real change.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged the limited impact of Germany's contribution, calling the airdrops a "small" effort relative to the scale of the crisis. Still, he defended the mission as a necessary gesture.

More than 61,000 Gazans have been killed in Israeli attacks since the war began, according to local health authorities. Those left behind may long be wary of hoping for more than small efforts and gestures at this point. – dpa