DUBAI // A Dh13 million UAE airlift is under way to provide aid to people in Gaza, the state news agency, Wam, reported.
Fourteen aircraft packed with supplies have flown since last Monday.
The operation is under the direction of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai.
The aid, sent from Dubai’s International Humanitarian City, is being sent to distribution centres run by United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA).
Supplies of blankets, kitchen sets, hygiene kits and medical supplies – including disinfectants, antibiotics and painkillers for use in Gaza’s hospitals and emergency triage centres – have also been sent by lorry from Dubai.
A further 60 lorries have also been loaded and are awaiting permission to enter.
“Once they reach Gaza, goods will be unloaded and distributed at UNWRA centres for the displaced and at medical facilities,” according to Wam.
“While there have been delays of up to six hours at the border, there have been no interruptions or incidents and UN officials have maintained pressure on the Israeli authorities to expedite the deliveries and keep the borders open for all humanitarian aid.”
Under normal circumstances borders are closed during religious holidays. However the UN has asked for crossings to remain open during Ramadan and Eid Al Fitr.
High level talks are currently under way to keep them open this week for humanitarian aid.
“Medical conditions are especially critical and [the World Health Organisation] has called for a humanitarian corridor to evacuate the seriously wounded from Gaza,” said Wam.
A delegation from the Emirates Red Crescent arrived in Gaza on Saturday accompanied by Ahmed Mohammed Al Jarwan, head of the Arab Parliament, to follow-up on the UAE’s humanitarian campaign. The delegation also visited the injured being treated at the Emirates Red Crescent field hospital in Gaza.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
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Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
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Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
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