The air drops are ratcheting up but can't keep pace with the speed of the deepening crisis in Gaza. In reality, they're pitifully small in relation to the vast need there right now. Jordan has mustered a multinational effort, which it's heading, and we were on one of their increasingly critical flights. Other flights involving Egypt, Holland, Belgium, and America were all taking off at the same time as ours.

This is not the most efficient way of getting vital food aid in bulk to those who need on the ground in Gaza, but it is one way for making sure that absolutely critical food gets to those that need it most in the north.

The pallets are filled with flour, rice, tins of fish, as well as baby formula and water. The mission: to drop them at more than a dozen locations in the north. Their cargo for the first time, is using British-supplied parachutes, able to take much much larger loads of up to a ton. It should make a crucial difference having those extra supplies. The crew check and recheck everything. They don't want a repeat of earlier drops by other nations when the shoots failed to open and ended up killing people on the ground. The eight pallets roll out in two batches. The Jordanian crew have taken all morning to reach this point. It is a moment to savor for them. On the ground, our sky crew is with those desperately in need, watching and anxiously waiting as the supplies tumble out of the handful of planes involved on this trip. There's a surge towards the food. The constant bombing, the constant fear, the constant hunger, and knowing there is definitely not going to be enough for everyone has brutally stripped people of their shared humanity. Look closely, you can see at least one man diving into the crowd to try to grab some food.

Zooming in, you can see more clearly, this is raw desperation. Getting hold of any food could make the difference between living or dying over the next few days. The need here is acute.

The hunger has been killing us. The aid drops without parachutes and causes deaths and injuries. We can't keep our kids alive. I have seven children and can't feed my kids.

The UN estimates one in six children younger than two in the north are suffering from acute malnutrition. The area is on the edge of a famine. The aid agencies used to take in about 500 truckloads of aid per day and say this method is just not going to be adequate. Even a sea corridor is a long and complicated route when road crossings exist with hundreds of aid lorries waiting to get in. The air drops are expensive, risky, and imprecise.

That was hours of preparation. A lot of people, a lot of nations involved, and over in seconds. They know that in reality, they're only going to be able to feed just that drop, a few hundred people.

From the plane, we get a glimpse of the devastation the Israeli bombing has already caused. The Jordanians, along with a growing list of countries, including the EU, are getting increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress on a ceasefire and the high number of casualties. These extreme measures to get aid to those in Gaza speaks volumes about the failure of diplomatic efforts. Alex Crawford, Sky News, on board an aid flight to Gaza.