Australian wheelchairs donated to Gaza stuck in Jordan warehouse

More than 900 wheelchairs, donated by two Australian charities to help injured children in Gaza, are stuck in warehouses in Jordan due to Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries into the war-ravaged strip.

Two shipments arrived in Jordan in February 2025 from New South Wales-based charity Kids on Wheels Alliance, while a third arrived in October 2025 from Wheelchairs for Kids based in Western Australia.

But instead of being delivered to children with severe mobility issues inside Gaza, they remain sitting in storage facilities managed by the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO).

At one of those sites on the outskirts of the Jordanian capital Amman, Dr Abdullah Al-Balawi from the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association (PANZMA) told the ABC he was "feeling great pain" seeing the boxes piled up.

"These wheelchairs, that are dedicated to Gaza's amputee children and those paralysed as a result of the war … they do not pose any threat," he said.

JHCO said the Israeli agency responsible for aid coordination in Gaza, COGAT, had blocked the chairs from getting into Gaza — but an Israeli government source denied an application for the Australian wheelchairs had been rejected.

COGAT did not answer the ABC's specific questions about the Australian donations, but in a general response said it had let thousands of wheelchairs into the strip during the war.

The ABC has been told Australian officials have raised the blocking of the wheelchair donations with Israel multiple times.

Charity says the sooner chairs can get to kids, 'the better'

Wheelchairs for Kids WA has been making specialised wheelchairs for children for more than two decades.

Its factory in Wangara, in Perth's northern suburbs, is staffed by volunteers and can produce and pack 120 wheelchairs each week — complete with knitted rugs and toys for children.

The wheelchairs are built to handle difficult terrain and are designed to grow with the children, helping negate the need for a replacement every few years.

"We'd like to help any little kid in the world who needs a wheelchair," said the organisation's co-founder Brother Olly Pickett AM, the 2025 Senior Australian of the Year.

"We'd like to help them as best we can, and so that's the reason we sent them over there."

Brother Olly said his team "weren't terribly pleased" to hear the wheelchairs they had produced and dispatched to the region were stranded in Jordan, but did not really understand what the hold-up was all about.

"The sooner they come out of there and get to the kids, the better, and the little kids can get a much better life," he said.

"I think there's a lot of children waiting for them who have had amputations, and so they won't be able to walk around or get around.

"Once they get a wheelchair, they can get out and about, which would be wonderful."

UNICEF, the United Nations children's agency, said that as a result of the war, more than 11,000 children in Gaza had potentially life-changing injuries requiring long-term rehabilitation and potential permanent disabilities.

That includes children who have suffered amputations and traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries.

'We want to deliver a message to the world'

The JHCO submitted an application in late February 2025 for the first two consignments of wheelchairs, from the Kids on Wheels Alliance, to be included in a convoy heading to Gaza.

It said that the application was rejected soon after, with Israeli authorities saying medical equipment and medicines were not approved for inclusion in that convoy.

The organisation said its application had remained "pending" ever since, with Israeli officials not providing any update since the initial rejection.

Because of that, JHCO said it had been unable to make a subsequent application for the third consignment of wheelchairs from WA.

"The wheelchairs are sadly, it appears, blocked from entering Gaza to the children that need them most," Shaoquett Moselmane, chair of the Kids on Wheels Alliance, told the ABC.

An Israeli government source told the ABC that no aid was allowed to enter Gaza from mid-March to mid-May after a ceasefire in the strip collapsed. The ceasefire then resumed for a few months, before Jordanian military-coordinated aid convoys were suspended in September 2025 after a shooting at the Allenby Bridge crossing between Jordan and the occupied West Bank.

The source insisted there would have been an opportunity for the wheelchairs to be delivered in that window, and said Jordanian authorities could pass the shipment to other NGOs or the United Nations to ship into Gaza instead.

But PANZMA said even if it tried to deliver the wheelchairs to Gaza through a United Nations shipment, passage into the strip would not be guaranteed and the move would incur significant extra costs.

"We want to deliver a message to the world," Dr Al-Balawi said.

"What is the impediment to the entrance of these wheelchairs into Gaza and reaching the children?

"The humanitarian aid must not stop; this is part of the stubbornness of the other side by not letting in this aid — the wheelchairs being only a part of it."

One informed source, from outside of the region, said the wheelchairs had been blocked because of concerns by Israeli authorities that the wheelchairs could be "dual use" — effectively classifying the civilian items as potential weapons.

Human rights organisations, including Gisha, have regularly criticised Israel for using a very broad definition of "dual use," arguing it goes so far as to include items like flashlights and tent poles.

COGAT says it has let thousands of wheelchairs into Gaza

The ABC sent a series of questions to COGAT about why the wheelchairs had been blocked from being included in Jordanian humanitarian convoys, including reference numbers and dates of the application.

COGAT did not answer those specific questions, instead responding in general terms about the amount of medical equipment it has allowed into Gaza since the October 2025 ceasefire.

"The State of Israel allows and facilitates the entry of medical equipment and equipment required for people with disabilities into the Gaza Strip, in cooperation with aid organisations and the international community," it said in a statement.

"Since the beginning of the ceasefire, approximately 22,000 tons of medical equipment and medicines have entered the Gaza Strip, in accordance with requests submitted by international organisations."

COGAT insisted it had approved the entry of thousands of wheelchairs into Gaza "without any quantitative restrictions".

"In addition, in cases where dual-use equipment is required to address the needs of people with disabilities, COGAT works together with international organisations operating on the ground to find solutions that will enable the entry of the required equipment," it said.

Australia's Minister for International Development, Anne Aly, said Australia had been among countries pressuring Israel to "allow humanitarian aid to flow unhindered to Gaza".

"We continue to call on Israel to comply with its obligations under international law, including the binding orders of the International Court of Justice to enable the provision of medical supplies to Palestinians throughout Gaza," Dr Aly told the ABC in a statement.

"This should include allowing wheelchairs for injured children that have been generously donated by Australian organisations, including ones made by Wheelchairs for Kids in my electorate of Cowan."