GAZA CITY, Palestine: Saudi aid agency, the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) has distributed 1,462 food baskets to Palestinian families in the besieged Gaza Strip, as part of its ongoing efforts to ease the worsening humanitarian crisis.
The initiative is part of the KSrelief ongoing efforts to alleviate the current hardships facing the Palestinian people, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Friday.
The distribution process followed a priority-needs approach, with the initial batch of aid allocated to households headed by women with more than five family members, families identified as requiring social protection, and households with individuals suffering from malnutrition.
The Saudi Centre for Culture and Heritage, acting as KSrelief’s implementing partner in Gaza, supervised the distribution efforts.
Beneficiary lists were finalised in coordination with international organisations operating in the Strip to ensure that the assistance reached the most vulnerable segments of the population.
Recipients expressed heartfelt gratitude to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its ongoing humanitarian efforts, noting that the aid comes at a critical moment and offers essential relief.
They also commended the Kingdom’s leading role in consistently supporting the Palestinian people.
The United Nations on Friday officially declared a famine in Gaza, blaming Israel for the “systematic obstruction of aid”, hours after Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Katz threatened to destroy the Palestinian territory’s largest city.
Israel angrily denied there was a famine, with the foreign ministry saying the report was “based on Hamas lies laundered through organisations with vested interests”.
The famine was declared by experts at the Rome-based Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), who said it affected 500,000 people in the Gaza governorate, which covers about a fifth of the Palestinian territory, including Gaza City.
