KARACHI: Ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha, a number of major Pakistani charity organizations say they are preparing to dispatch sacrificial meat to the people of Gaza amid a dire humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory.
A global hunger monitor has warned of imminent famine in parts of Gaza, home to 2.3 million people. This Eid will be the second in the besieged enclave since Israel launched a war on Hamas that has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians.
Aid access into southern Gaza has been disrupted since Israel stepped up military operations in Rafah, a move that the UN says has forced 900,000 people to flee. Rafah was a main entry point for humanitarian relief as well as some commercial supplies between Egypt and the Gaza Strip before Israel stepped up its military offensive on the Gazan side of the border on May 6 and took control of the crossing from the Palestinian side.
Al-Khidmat Foundation (AKF), one of the largest humanitarian organizations in Pakistan with an international footprint, said it would sacrifice animals ahead of Eid Al-Adha both in Pakistan and Egypt, and collaborate with Turkish non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to ship the meat to Gaza.
“We will sacrifice [animals] in Egypt in large numbers so that it is easy to deliver meat from Egypt and we are also arranging for sacrifice in Pakistan as this year a lot of Turkish NGOs have come to Pakistan and they want the sacrifice to be done in Pakistan,” Qazi Sadaruddin, a director at AKF, told Arab News, adding that there was an “overwhelming” demand among Pakistanis that their meat be dispatched to victims of Israel’s war on Gaza “who deserve it the most.”
“The meat from Pakistan will be converted into ready-to-eat form before dispatching it, because sending raw meat is very difficult,” Sadaruddin said.
“We have booked the whole slaughterhouse, we have got an idea that 3,000 to 4,000 animals will be slaughtered at Al-Khidmat platform and will be converted into ready-to-eat meat and sent there [Gaza].”
He said queries were continuously pouring in from Pakistani clients on how they could send meat to the Palestinian people.
“They wish for a significant portion of the meat to reach Palestine,” Sadaruddin said.
“We have received numerous inquiries from people in the UK, many from Saudi Arabia, and other countries as well and their funds will also start transferring.”
Other charities have also seen a rise in people wanting to send meat to Gaza.
“As the time for [Eid] sacrifice is approaching, people are turning to us and demanding we make a sacrifice in Gaza,” Muhammad Fayyaz, CEO of the Khadija-tul-Kubra Welfare Trust (KKWT), told Arab News.
As it was not possible to offer the sacrifice in Gaza in view of the Israeli air and ground strikes, KKWT plans to slaughter animals in Pakistan and dispatch their ready-to-eat meat to Gaza in tin packs with a long shelf life, Fayyaz explained.
“We have thought of an alternate way to make a sacrifice in Karachi on the theme of Gaza,” he told Arab News. “The animals will be slaughtered and their meat will go to catering companies. They will dry the meat and pack it in a tin. The cooked meat will be packed in a tin in ready-to-eat form.”
“I have booked my share for the people of Gaza and I would request my friends and the people who come to mosque and those who can afford to donate as much as they can to the people of Gaza,” Muhammad Azhar Khan, a resident of Karachi’s upscale Defense Housing Authority (DHA) area, told Arab News. “They are in a dire need of food right now.”
