By NNN-Bernama,
Kuala Lumpur : A new assesment on the effectiveness of shipping humanitarian relief aid to Gaza has to be made to ensure that the aid reaches the people of Gaza, says former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
“We have to make an assesment first as to the effectiveness of the method of bringing relief to Gaza. This is not just (for) propaganda, he said when asked here Sunday about the next move of the Perdana Global Peace Organization (PGPO), which he founded, to bring aid to Gaza after the latest attempt was stopped by the Israeli defence force.
The PGPO was among the variious relief organizations and voluntees from around the world which had mounted the aid convoy for Gaza. An Israeli attack on one of the ships last Monday resulted is nine members of the aid convoy being killed.
“We are very worried that the cement for example is not allowed by the Israelis to be imported into Gaza. They (Palestinians) may make use of it to build military bunkers to fight against them (Israelis), but without the cement they (Palestinians) cannot build houses,” said Dr Mahathir.
He was speaking to reporters after launching the inaugural charity fund drive to raise funds for the development of a new Kiblah Education Complex, which will comprise a secondary school, a tahfiz centre and a linguistics centre, under the patronage of Yayasan Kebajikan Nusantara (Yakin).
Dr Mahathir is the chairman of PGPO, a non-governmental organization involved in relief missions. It was involved in the Gaza Aid Flotilla mission to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza this past week but Israel refused to let the ships to go to Gaza but instead diverted them to Ashdod Port in Israel.
The Israelis also attacked one of the ships in the convoy, causing nine deaths which sparked an international outrage and demands that Israel lift its blockade of Gaza.
When asked whether humanitarian aid can be transported by air, he said that he did not think so, and added that “it might be by land”. “If Egypt opens its border with Raffah in Gaza, they want to examine everything and every item that we take and that may cause delays, and also they may consider certain things as dangerous,” he said.