Egyptian aid workers celebrate as an aid truck crosses back into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Oct. 21, 2023. (AFP Photo) Egyptian aid workers celebrate as an aid truck crosses back into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Oct. 21, 2023. (Credit: AFP)
BEIRUT — Two thousand tonnes of aid will head from Lebanon to Egypt’s Arish port in early May, before making its way into Gaza, an organizer of the "Solidarity with Gaza" aid project told L’Orient Today.
Palestinian activist Nazih Bekai said the aid will be transported to Egypt in a ship named after the Syrian Archbishop Hilarion Capucci, who passed away in 2017 after having spent his life advocating for the Palestinian cause.
Aid collected in Lebanon to be sent to Gaza. (Photo sent to L'Orient Today by Nazih Bekai, one of the organizers of the aid drive.)
In February, several activists and religious leaders in Lebanon, both Lebanese and Palestinian, decided that since aid has been entering Gaza "in a more flexible manner in the past few weeks" it was time for Lebanon to start an aid drive, Bekai explained.
Israel has been allowing more aid to enter the blockaded Strip as global pressure against a man-made famine mounts.
Warehouses in Egypt ready to receive donations
Dar al-Fatwa played an essential role in collecting aid and spreading awareness about the campaign, specifically through the Mufti of the Bekaa Sheikh Ali Gezzawi who repeatedly called on people to donate to Gaza during his religious sermons.
A call went out to business owners and merchants specifically, appealing for donations. “The calls were very positive. Some merchants donated over $10,000, while some citizens donated $2 and $3 because the situation in Lebanon is also stark,” Bekai said. Lebanese and Palestinians alike donated what they could.
“The aid will enter through the Egyptian Arish port where a team of Palestinian aid workers are ready and have prepared warehouses to store the supplies in preparation for transporting them by land to Gaza through the Rafah crossing,” Bekai explained.
Aid collected in Lebanon to be sent to Gaza. (Photo sent to L'Orient Today by Nazih Bekai, one of the organizers of the aid drive.)
Another reason for proceeding with the aid drive at this time was news that congestion at Rafah crossing had lightened. “We received information that many aid trucks were able to enter Gaza and that there aren’t many trucks still waiting in Rafah," Bekai explained.
Last week, a Libyan shipment of aid entered Gaza through the same process, using the same Palestinian aid team in Egypt, so the Lebanese organization is hopeful that their delivery will enter without facing problems from the Israeli side.
'Women are selling their jewelry to donate to Gaza'
“Some Palestinian women in Lebanon and some Lebanese women had even sold some of their gold jewelry to donate to Gaza, and we know what it means for a woman to sell her gold in our culture," Sheikh Ziad Haifa from Dar al-Fatwa in the Bekaa told L’Orient Today.
Aid collected in Lebanon to be sent to Gaza. (Photo sent to L'Orient Today by Nazih Bekai, one of the organizers of the aid drive.)
Gold jewelry holds immense significance to Arab women, from financial stability to a sense of cultural pride and identity.
Haifa explained that there is both a religious and a humanitarian aspect to Dar al-Fatwa's participation in the fundraiser.
“People across the world are donating and sympathizing with Gaza. We are their neighbors, it's our duty to help in any small way we can. God will ask us what we did for our neighbors when they were starving and in need of aid. We wish we could give and do more to our dear brothers and sisters in Gaza, but we did the best that we could under the circumstances,” Haifa said.
Despite an economic crisis in Lebanon that has plunged the majority of the population into poverty, the campaign received a lot of support, which Haifa says comes from an inherent empathy for Palestinians. "After all, the Lebanese know about war, siege, and starvation. Our history is filled with it.”
The Israeli army has invaded Lebanon several times since its establishment. In 1982 the army lay siege to Beirut during the 15-year Civil War. A famine also devastated Mount Lebanon from 1915 to 1918 during the Ottoman Empire.
“So it’s only natural that the people of Lebanon are standing in solidarity with the people of Gaza,” Haifa said.
The way Haifa sees it, humanitarian crises tend to reveal certain values essential to many Lebanese communities. “People from different nationalities and backgrounds, and even religions were coming into Dar al-Fatwa to donate. The Palestinian cause unified our people,” he said.
At least 34,356 Palestinians have been killed and 77,368 wounded in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to a report published Friday by the Gaza Health Ministry, Reuters reported.
Aid convoys have repeatedly come under Israeli fire and are systematically denied access to some of the enclave's most devastated areas and those most in need of urgent aid.