Turkish charity dispatches food aid to Gaza

By Mehmet Kara

ISTANBUL (AA) - A Turkish humanitarian aid organization has sent food aid to blockaded Gaza Strip on Thursday.

Istanbul-based Sadakatasi Association sent tomato, cucumber, potato, onion, paprika and chicken for 1,000 poverty-hit families in Gaza, the charity group said.

Situation in the areas of food, health and economy are deteriorating in the Gaza city, which is home to roughly two million people, the association said.

Thousands in Gaza are currently unemployed as many workplaces were shut down due to the blockade.

A Palestinian worker union said the unemployment rate in Gaza is more than 50 percent and Gazans need foreign aids to survive.

Sadakatasi Association chief Kemal Ozdal said that the charity group will continue to send humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Israel first imposed its blockade on Gaza in 2006 after Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, which supports armed resistance to Israel, swept Palestinian legislative polls.

The following year, Israel ratcheted up its blockade after Hamas seized the entire strip -- which it still governs today -- from rival Palestinian faction Fatah.

Still in effect, the blockade has crippled Gaza’s economy and deprived the strip’s more than two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.