Tuesday 11 December 2012

Aid mission arrives in Gaza

GAZA (Palestinian territories): After a 34-hour journey from Kuala Lumpur and passing through numerous security checkpoints, the Kelab Putera 1Malaysia (KP1M)-led humanitarian mission finally arrived at the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

The 52-member team compri-sing volunteers, medical staff and the media arrived by bus at about 10pm local time on Saturday (3.45am Sunday, Malaysian time) after brief stops in Cairo and Rafah in Egypt.

They were joined by several other team members already on the ground.

The team visited the sites affected by the recent deadly Israeli offensive on Gaza, which killed over 100 Palestinians, yesterday.

“This is a real ground zero mission. The team members will be able to see and gather actual information from their own observation,” mission chief and KP1M president Datuk Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim said.

He said the team would also visit two hospitals here and hand over medical supplies as well as aid to the needy.

Before leaving Malaysia, Abdul Azeez had said the mission aimed to help 40,000 Palestinian families in Gaza by providing food and blankets.

Meanwhile, head of the medical team Datuk Dr Alwi Abdul Rahman said they would open a health clinic besides supporting local doctors and paramedics, which includes conducting training sessions.

The sessions would cover areas such as CPR, post-traumatic stress disorder and treatment for injuries.

“We'll also cooperate with the local children's hospital and organise psycho-social activities like football matches and drawing competitions for the children,” he said.

On medical supplies brought by the mission this time, Dr Alwi said the items could treat up to 2,000 patients and last at least six months.

“It is likely that most of the patients suffer from post-traumatic stress and injuries as a result of the conflict,” he added.

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