Jordan's Princess Salma takes part in airdrop of supplies to Gaza field hospital

Kingdom has been parachuting medical aid after Israel restricted deliveries to the Palestinian enclave

Princess Salma of Jordan, daughter of King Abdullah II and Queen Rania, is briefed by officers upon returning to Marka military airport. All photos: AFP

Princess Salma took part in a Jordanian operation to drop medical supplies over Gaza

This was the fifth Jordanian operation in which medical supplies were parachuted into Gaza

Jordan has vowed to continue sending aid to the Palestinians 'through any means available'

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Princess Salma of Jordan took part in the fifth airdrop of critical medical supplies to a Jordanian medical centre in Gaza, the state news agency said.

The 40-bed Jordanian Field Hospital Gaza 76 was set up in the north of the strip in 2009 to boost health services in the Palestinian enclave amid a blockade imposed Israel.

Jordan has been using airdrops to resupply the field hospital after Israel restricted deliveries to northern Gaza in its drive to eliminate Hamas, which controls the strip and whose fighters killed about 1,200 people in raids in southern Israel on October 7, leading to a military retaliation.

Princess Salma, 23, a first lieutenant in the Royal Jordanian Air Force, was part of the crew that carried out the latest airdrop, the Petra news agency reported on Thursday.

The third child of King Abdullah II and Queen Rania, the princess became Jordan's first female military pilot in 2020 after graduating from Britain's Sandhurst military academy three years earlier.

Jordan's Crown Prince Hussein last month oversaw the delivery of another field hospital for Gaza amid mounting casualties in the territory.

Equipment and staff for the 41-bed facility were flown to the Egyptian city of Al Arish in the Sinai Peninsula before entering Gaza through the Rafah border crossing in a convoy of 40 lorries.

The two-month-old Israeli offensive has devastated Gaza's health infrastructure and killed about 19,000 people, Palestinian authorities said. An estimated 50,000 people have been injured.