Local efforts to garner aid for Gaza continue

AMMAN — Local organisations, professional associations and political parties on Monday continued activities to secure further support and assistance for Gaza as an Israeli aggression entered its 28th day.

The Professional Associations Council (PAC) decided to allocate an additional JD200,000 to secure medical supplies and relief aid for Gazans.

The Jordan News Agency, Petra, quoted PAC President Hashem Abu Hassan as saying that the council also decided to hold a national forum for professional associations and political parties on Thursday to discuss support for Gaza, where over 1,800 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks.

PAC has also delegated the Jordan Bar Association to coordinate with the Arab Lawyers Union to file lawsuits against Israel and Israeli war criminals, Abu Hassan said.

PAC, along with other professional association committees and branches, also decided to form a comprehensive national committee tasked with organising all association activities to help the Palestinian people in Gaza, according to a PAC statement issued Monday.

The council stressed the importance of activating its anti-normalisation committees and called on the Jordanian public to boycott Israeli products.

In the statement, PAC also urged the government to scrap the Wadi Araba peace accord with Israel and expel the Israeli ambassador.

Also on Monday, the third batch of aid from Tkiyet Um Ali headed to Gaza, carrying 5,000 food packages, in coordination with the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation (JHCO) and UNRWA, Petra reported.

With the new batch, the tkiyet will have distributed 15,000 food parcels in Gaza out of a projected total of 25,000 packages.

The latest batch of assistance will be distributed to over 240,000 people taking shelter at UNRWA schools in the coastal enclave, Petra quoted Samer Balkar, the tkiyet’s director, as saying.

Those wishing to donate for Gaza by covering the cost of one package (JD40), can visit the tkiyet’s booths at local malls and shopping centres or call 06/4900900, Balkar added.

In Amman, Social Development Minister Reem Abu Hassan met with heads of women’s organisations to discuss coordinating their efforts to aid Gazans.

The minister said collected donations should cover aid to the field hospital in Gaza and to UNRWA, adding that all assistance should go through JHCO, Petra reported.

JHCO on Monday received an aircraft laden with humanitarian assistance for Gaza donated by Bahrain. 

The plane, the second to be sent by Bahrain, included 40 tonnes of food and medical assistance to be dispatched by the organisation to the coastal enclave and handed out to Gazans by UNRWA, according to Petra. 

In another show of solidarity with Palestinians, the Reform and Renewal Party (Hasad) organised a sit-in in front of the Egyptian embassy, denouncing Arab silence over the war on Gaza. 

Protesters called on Egypt to stand by the besieged Palestinian people in the strip.