Turkish aid agency helps Gaza’s poor for Eid al-Adha

By Mohamed Majid

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Turkish relief foundation IHH on Wednesday distributed meat from animals sacrificed for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday to poor families in the blockaded Gaza Strip.

"We have distributed meat from 83 sacrificed cows to 9,000 poor families in Gaza," IHH Gaza Director Mehmet Kaya told Anadolu Agency.

"The provision of meat from sacrificed animals to the poor is a core part of the IHH’s humanitarian mandate," he added.

"We will continue to provide support to poor families in Gaza and in all places in which we have a presence," Kaya asserted.

Since 2009, the IHH has maintained an office in the Gaza Strip, the inhabitants of which continue to reel under an almost decade-long Israeli/Egyptian blockade.

According to UN figures, some 80 percent of the strip’s almost 2 million residents now depend on aid donations for their survival.

Blockaded by Israel since 2007, the Gaza Strip has seven border crossings linking it to the outside world. Six of these are controlled by Israel, while the seventh -- the Rafah crossing -- is controlled by Egypt, which keeps it tightly sealed for the most part.

Israel sealed four of its commercial crossings with Gaza in June 2007 after Palestinian resistance movement Hamas wrested control of the strip from the Palestinian Authority.