Kuwait launches aid campaign for Palestinians

KUWAIT:

A Kuwaiti charity yesterday kicked off a humanitarian initiative to support development in Jerusalem’s sacrosanct Al-Aqsa mosque. Chairman of Kuwait’s International Islamic Charitable Organization (IICO) Dr Abdullah Al-Matouq hailed the endeavor as an effort to protect holy Islamic sites and to tackle unemployment through providing jobs.

He revealed that the campaign was comprised of projects that run the gamut from educational and food aid to infrastructure and healthcare development, saying Kuwait “deplores Israel’s wanton attacks on our Palestinian brothers.” Matouq, who is also the UN’s Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs and advisor to Kuwait’s Amiri Diwan, lamented the fact that around 82 percent of Palestinians in Jerusalem live below the poverty line. He stressed that coming to the aid of the Palestinian people was both a humanitarian and religious obligation. —KUNA

JERUSALEM: A Palestinian man walks past Israeli border police as they stand guard while Muslim worshippers pray outside Jerusalem’s Old City last Friday. —AFP