By Ibrahim Khazen
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AA) - The United Arab Emirates announced on Saturday the dispatch of a new aid shipment to the Gaza Strip, which has been facing a severe humanitarian crisis since Israel launched a war on the enclave last October.
“The United Arab Emirates has announced the dispatch of a new shipment of aid to the Gaza Strip, in cooperation with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), carrying onboard 1,166 tonnes of urgent essential food supplies,” the UAE Foreign Ministry said in a press release.
The aid shipment was organized in collaboration with the agency, through joint efforts with the US, the Greek Cypriot administration, and various international donors including the European Union, added the ministry.
It said the ship departed from the Greek Cypriot port of Larnaca to the Port of Ashdod, and entered the Gaza Strip via the Beit Hanoun crossing, in cooperation with American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA).
Since last Oct. 7, Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas which killed some 1,200 people.
Over 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its onslaught nearly eight months ago. Most of those killed have been women and children, with more than 82,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid Israel's crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala in Istanbul