HIBAPRESS-RABAT
The fourth Emirati aid ship to support the people of Gaza arrived on Thursday at the port of Al-Arish in Egypt’s North Sinai Governorate, to prepare for the entry of its cargo into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing, in coordination with the Egyptian authorities. The ship was launched from the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on July 8, as part of the UAE’s “Operation Al Fares Al Shahm 3” to support the Palestinians in Gaza, in light of the difficult conditions they have been experiencing throughout the past months. This initiative is part of the UAE’s humanitarian mission and a continuation of a decades-long Emirati commitment.
This is the fourth ship to arrive in Al-Arish as part of the “Al Fares Al Shahm 3” initiative and the eighth UAE aid ship to the Gaza Strip. This ship is the largest in terms of cargo and diversity of contents. It carries 5,340 tons of relief goods and food, including 4,134 tons of food packages (145,000 packages), 145 tons of rice and flour, 110 tons of water divided into 200,000 packages, as well as more than 4,000 tents, 42,000 health packages for women and children, 18 tons of sun, wind and dust-proof blankets, and 1,600 relief bags.
The delivery of this aid was made possible thanks to the contribution of the UAE Red Crescent Authority, the Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation and the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation for Humanitarian Works. A total of 313 trucks were mobilized to load the cargo onto the ship. Rashid Mubarak Al Mansouri, Secretary-General of the UAE Red Crescent Authority, said that this ship is the largest in terms of cargo and diversity of contents, thus covering the different needs of the Palestinians. He added that his country has continued to fulfill its humanitarian and relief role since the beginning of the difficult conditions experienced by the Palestinians, implementing the directives of President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, with the aim of alleviating the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The UAE has implemented several initiatives under Operation Al Fares Al Shahm 3, including the establishment of two field hospitals. The first inside the Gaza Strip, with a capacity of more than 200 beds under the supervision of an Emirati medical team of more than 100 doctors, nurses, pharmacists and laboratory technicians. And the second, a floating hospital off the Egyptian city of Al-Arish, with a capacity of 100 beds.
In addition, five automatic bakeries were established to meet the daily bread needs of more than 72,000 people. The Emirates also provided flour to eight existing bakeries in Gaza to provide bread to more than 17,000 others, and set up six desalination plants producing 1.2 million gallons of water per day, totaling 2 million gallons of water pumped daily into the Gaza Strip, benefiting more than 600,000 people.
In parallel with Operation Al Fares Al Shahm 3, the UAE launched Operation Birds of Charity to drop humanitarian aid to isolated and underserved areas in the northern Gaza Strip, with a total of 3,382 tons of relief and humanitarian aid dropped to date.
