NEWSLINE PAPER,- A thousand miles east of Gaza, large relief supplies are being ready for delivery by US military aircraft, as the crew members are silhouetted by the early light reflecting off the desert surrounds of Qatar's al-Udeid airport.
The crew stuffs eighty crates, each wrapped in canvas, fastened to a cardboard pallet and fitted with a parachute, into the large cabin of the aircraft.
Supplying Gaza has become a complex, dangerous, global undertaking. This week the RAF finished its first two relief flights; France, Germany, Jordan, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates also made contributions.
The US soldiers have now completed eighteen missions. It takes six hours round trip from Doha to deliver 40,000 pre-packaged meals to the tiny, under siege combat zone.
More control issues arise with this approach of aid delivery, which is also more expensive and inefficient than alternatives.
It is thought that twelve people drowned earlier in the week while trying to retrieve humanitarian shipments that had fallen into the sea. There were apparently six more who were crushed in the haste to get the help.
"We're trying to reduce casualties and we're very aware of all the news," mission commander Maj. Boone said, standing beneath a huge American flag at the cockpit door.
"Everything that is within our power is being done here. We use a slower descending parachute so that Gazans have more time to see it and get out of its way.
US troops are seen on an aircraft getting ready to prepare relief supplies. Joining a humanitarian aeroplane, BBC News saw a US drop over Gaza. We won't drop if there are any individuals around since we also have resources in the air that clear the drop zone.
He clarified that although they carefully map out the path, hoping to get the supplies to safer, more open places along the Gaza shore, they release the parcels over the sea so that boxes with malfunctioning parachutes will fall into the water instead of onto people or buildings.
Nothing here is easy.
Crowds gather fast to follow the path of a large military cargo aircraft because its roar can be heard for kilometres.
Many take huge risks in their desperation to get the help, and many come up empty-handed.
As the number of deaths has grown, Hamas has allegedly demanded that airdrops stop, calling them "ineffective" and a "genuine threat to the lives of starving civilians."
The lack of any planned dispersion of the help after it lands increases the dangers.
As we pass low above Gaza, the ramp of the aircraft opens to show the outskirts of the devastated capital city of the Strip, with its surviving skyscrapers towering like lone bare teeth.
US food supplies are being sent to places where US-made weaponry have already made an impact.
Under us were busy coastal roads full of cars and people all going quickly in the same direction, as though they were racing the jet.
Reuter An aircraft of the US militaryThomson Reuters Pictures of the aeroplane used to fly the relief supplies have been made public by the US military. We saw as the parachutes swiftly left the aircraft and in a matter of seconds became tiny specks. Many hovered over the ocean, but two fell straight into the sea when their parachutes broke.
"It's not perfect," US Air Force spokesman Maj Ryan DeCamp said when asked if supply drops were the best way to address Gaza's food issue.
"We are aware that there are up to two million people who need food on the ground - innocent civilians who did not start this conflict - and we are giving meals in the tens of thousands.
Does it seem insignificant in comparison? Maybe a little bit, but it might be a lifesaver if you're a family on the ground who got some of this help."
A BBC journalist working in Gaza saw the US parachutes descend. That day he counted eleven air drops. Reportedly, some people in the north spend their days looking up at the sky awaiting relief aircraft.
UN human rights head tells BBC that hunger in Gaza may qualify as a war crime. Ahmed Tafesh, another Gaza City resident, said, "We have tried twice this morning, but to no avail." If at all possible