Turkey’s IHH launches new Gaza Strip charity initiative

By Noor Abu Aisha

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Turkish humanitarian relief organization IHH on Thursday officially launched a new charity project in the blockaded Gaza Strip -- dubbed "Martyrs of the Freedom Flotilla" -- which will provide daily meals for poor Gazan families.

"Today we inaugurate this project, which is named after the martyrs of the Mavi Marmara aid ship, with a view to easing the suffering of Gaza residents and providing poor families with food," Mehmet Kaya, director of IHH’s Gaza branch, told Anadolu Agency.

According to Kaya, the $85,000 project will cater to some 600 poor Gazan families who have been selected by Zakat committees, which work according to Islamic regulations on charity.

Kaya went on to explain that the project would change its coverage area each month with a view to reaching the largest possible number of the beneficiaries.

The name of the project -- "Martyrs of the Freedom Flotilla" -- commemorates ten Turkish activists who were killed by Israeli commandoes in 2010 while attempting to break Israel’s ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip.

According to estimates, some 80 percent of the Gaza Strip’s population of almost two million is now dependent on international aid to survive, due primarily to Israel’s decade-long blockade.