KRCS braves bombardment, distributes aid to Gazans

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 10: Kuwait has urged the international community to work earnestly in a bid to find “just solutions” to the conflict in the Middle East as violence there continues to intensify, a diplomat said on Tuesday. Underlining Kuwait’s “grave concern” over the developments in the Middle East, its permanent delegate to the United Nations’ cultural agency UNESCO Dr. Adam Al-Mulla said any solution to the conflict in the Middle East should address the “root cause” of the upsurge in violence. The Kuwait diplomat went on to emphasize the “necessity” to ensure the adequate protection of the Palestinians, ultimately granting them their inalienable rights to a decent living, which includes fulfilling their statehood aspirations, he added. Kuwait is currently serving a four-year term in the UN cultural agency’s executive council.

Meanwhile, the Kuwait Society for Relief, in partnership with a number of charitable societies in Kuwait, yesterday launched a popular campaign under the slogan “Support for Palestine” to collect donations for the Palestinian people. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the society Ibrahim Al-Saleh announced the continuation of national campaigns to support and provide relief to the afflicted and affected people everywhere, especially in the Palestinian territories.

He said, “The campaign was launched through high-level coordination among the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Information, the Kuwait Relief Society, and a number of charitable societies and organizations in the State of Kuwait in order to secure medical and food aid and necessary urgent shelter supplies for civilians in the various governorates and cities of the State of Palestine.” Al-Saleh urged philanthropists - individuals and organizations - to contribute to this national campaign “in order to support the steadfastness of our Palestinian people, who are making the most wonderful sacrifices in preserving the gains and sanctities of the Muslim and Arab nation.”

In this regard, the Palestinian Ambassador to Kuwait Rami Tahboub thanked the State of Kuwait for launching this campaign. He said, “This is something we have become accustomed to from the Kuwait of humanity, the Kuwait of Arabism, under the leadership of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad, his faithful Crown Prince Sheikh Meshaal Al-Ahmad, and the government, people, and the National Assembly’s representatives in the beloved State of Kuwait. Kuwait has always been the first to give us this strong spirit to withstand the occupier and the military machine. Our role as the embassy is to coordinate with the official authorities for the requirements for the campaign.” Director of the Marketing Department at Nama Charitable Trust and coordinator of the support campaign for Palestine Abdulaziz Al-Ibrahim affirmed that the aim of the campaign is to provide medicine, food, and shelter to thousands of people affected by the attacks on the Gaza Strip, as well as provide urgent relief, perform urgent surgical operations for the wounded and injured, and provide medical equipment, first aid, clothes, tents, etc.

Al-Ibrahim explained that the campaign comes as a new station in continuous Kuwaiti charitable giving towards Palestine and its people, which began before the independence of Kuwait and the Nakba of Palestine. The campaign aims at providing food, clothing, and medicine, as well as providing medical equipment and performing operations and surgeries.

The relief intervention program includes supplying hospitals and health centers in the Gaza Strip with medical supplies, medical devices, medicines, fuel, and ambulances to work on increasing their efficiency in treating the wounded and injured. The program also includes food parcels, drinking water, purchase plots, cash aid, shelter parcels, and aid for orphans and families, as well as clothing. Al-Ibrahim expressed appreciation for the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Social Affairs and the speedy response to such a tragedy. He highlighted that the Kuwaiti charitable work is linked to the systems of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Social Affairs. Elsewhere, a team from Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) is currently distributing food supplies and daily meals to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in spite of intensive bombardment of Gaza City and regions in the enclave, the association announced on Tuesday. KRCS Secretary-General Maha Al-Barjas expressed to KUNA keenness to support the Palestinian people in the current tragic conditions caused by Israeli occupation’s aggression on the strip. Al-Barjas said that KRCS teams, today, distributed food supplies and daily meals to Palestinians who fled their homes and took up refuge at shelters. She has affirmed that the KRCS teams are currently in Gaza which has been under intensive Israeli bombardment, and there have been contacts with them to determine further urgent medical and food needs for the Gazans. In coordination with the Egyptian Red Crescent, a convoy of relief and medical supplies was prepared to relieve the brothers in Gaza, she said, affirming that the association would also aid Gazans who suffered losses as a result of the Israeli aggression. Moreover, Al-Barjas called on Kuwaiti citizens, residents of Kuwait, and private sector to participate in “Aid Palestine” campaign by donating through the Society’s website.

In the latest developments, Israeli warplanes hammered the Gaza Strip neighborhood by neighborhood on Tuesday, reducing buildings to rubble and sending people scrambling to find safety in the tiny, sealed-off territory as Israel vowed retaliation for Hamas’ surprise weekend attack that would “reverberate … for generations.” Aid organizations pleaded for the creation of humanitarian corridors to get aid into Gaza, warning that hospitals overwhelmed with wounded were running out of supplies. Israel has stopped all access to food, fuel, and medicines into Gaza, and the sole remaining access from Egypt shut down Tuesday after airstrikes hit near the border crossing. The war began after Hamas militants stormed into Israel on Saturday, bringing gunbattle to its streets for the first time in decades. At least 1,600 lives have already been claimed on both sides and perhaps hundreds more. Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza hold more than 150 soldiers and civilians hostage, according to Israel. The conflict is only expected to escalate. Israel expanded the mobilization of reservists to 360,000 on Tuesday, according to the country’s media. After days of fighting, Israel’s military said Tuesday morning that it had regained effective control over areas Hamas attacked in its south and of the Gaza border. A looming question is whether Israel will launch a ground offensive into Gaza - a 40-kilometer-long (25-mile-long) strip of land wedged among Israel, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea that is home to 2.3 million people and has been governed by Hamas since 2007.

By Abdul Nasser Al-Aslami

Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff and Agencies