RIYADH: King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, also known as KSrelief, established a central kitchen in the Gaza Strip to support the Palestinian people as part of Saudi Arabia’s humanitarian efforts.

The Saudi kitchen has begun providing 24,000 daily hot meals since the start of Ramadan last week for Palestinians in the central Gaza towns of Deir Al-Balah and Al-Qarara.

The initiative is part of the Saudi Popular Campaign for the Relief of the Palestinian People in the Gaza Strip, in cooperation with the Saudi Center for Culture and Heritage.

At the end of the initiative period, the kitchen will have produced and distributed 3,600,000 meals to Palestinians in central Gaza and enabled the employment of 40 local workers, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, the general supervisor of KSrelief, told SPA that the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip is “one of the largest crises in the history of humanity.”

He highlighted that Palestinians are facing displacement and urgent humanitarian needs, with 90 percent of Gaza’s population below the poverty line, lacking access to food, water, medicine, and necessities for children and infants.

Saudi Arabia was one of the first countries to launch an air bridge, as well as sea and land convoys, sending aid to Gaza via over 80 planes and dozens of vessels, through the Jordanian and Egyptian crossings.

Dr. Al-Rabeeah noted that KSrelief used airdrops to deliver aid to Gaza after October 2023, when other means were not possible, the SPA added.

He said the Saudi kitchen will serve over 36,000 families and described it as “the largest central kitchen available for a group of displaced people.”