Aid appeals for the Palestinians launched

The Civil Protection Department will be collecting food and clothes for the Palestinian people next Sunday.

“The victims of this human crisis need everything,” Palestinian Ambassador to Malta Jubran Taweel said at a press conference at a CPD warehouse in Marsa.

The recent war, he said, had left about 100,000 people displaced and killed about 1,300 of whom 410 were children.

Mr Taweel and the Imam, Mohammed El Sadi, thanked the government and the Maltese people for their support and appealed for their help to the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Social Policy Minister John Dalli and Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said that Malta always reacted to humanitarian disasters by trying to alleviate suffering through aid.

Civil Protection director Peter Cordina said the collections will be made next Sunday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. in Qormi in the square near St Sebastian parish church, or the nearby school in case of bad weather .

In Gozo, the collection will take place at the Fire Station in Xewkija at the same time.

While cash will not be accepted, the CPD will be accepting food including rice, wheat, sugar, canned tuna and vegetables, powdered mild, nappies, bottled water, batteries, flashlights, new clothes, blankets, mattresses and eight-people tents. Medicines can also be bought with money deposited into the Malta Islamic Welfare Fund, set up by the Mosque’s committee. Cheques can be addressed to the fund and money can be deposited into the Bank of Valletta account number 1490 6735 012.

Meanwhile, the wife of the Palestinian Ambassador, Dina Taweel, on Monday hosted a meeting for dignitaries to start a campaign in aid of the civilians victims of the war in Gaza .

Those present included Mrs Kate Gonzi, and spouses of ambassadors and other dignitaries.

Mrs Taweel thanked Mrs Gonzi and the guests for their presence and spoke about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the urgency of sending aid.

All material donations can be sent to the Palestinian Embassy in Malta and will be delivered to Gaza through Jordan through the Royal Charitable Jordanian Association and to Egypt with the assistance of the Egyptian Red Crescent .

More information is available on 21 382 355. The embassy is at Villa Highfields 52 Triq il-Modd, Ibrag.