900 wheelchairs donated for Gaza’s children stuck in Jordan
Australian charities say Israeli aid restrictions have left chairs — meant for children maimed in war — sitting in warehouses for months
SYDNEY, Australia (MNTV) — More than 900 wheelchairs donated by Australian charities for children injured in Gaza are stranded in warehouses in Jordan, unable to reach the territory because of Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries, ABC News reported.
Two shipments from the New South Wales charity Kids on Wheels Alliance reached Jordan in February 2025, and a third from Western Australia’s Wheelchairs for Kids arrived in October 2025, but all remain in storage run by the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO) near Amman.
“These wheelchairs are dedicated to Gaza’s amputee children and those paralysed as a result of the war… they do not pose any threat,” said Abdullah Al-Balawi, a doctor with the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association, describing his pain at seeing the boxes piled up.
The JHCO said COGAT — the Israeli military body that controls aid coordination for Gaza — had blocked the chairs.
Australian officials have reportedly raised the issue with Israel several times.
The chairs were purpose-built for children, designed for rough terrain and to grow with a child over years.
“The sooner they come out of there and get to the kids, the better,” said Wheelchairs for Kids co-founder Brother Olly Pickett, the 2025 Senior Australian of the Year, who said he did not understand the hold-up.
UNICEF estimates the war has left more than 11,000 children in Gaza with potentially life-changing injuries — including amputations and spinal and brain injuries — needing long-term rehabilitation.
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