January 2009

Rissho Kosei-kai Donate-a-Meal Fund for Peace Gives Emergency Relief to Gaza Residents

On January 13, the executive committee of the Donate-a-Meal Fund for Peace announced that it had decided to provide 3 million Japanese yen in emergency relief to residents of Gaza who had suffered aerial bombing by Israel since December.

Last June, Israel and Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, which governs Gaza, agreed to a truce mediated by Egypt. Under the agreement, Israel was to reopen Gaza border crossings and Hamas was to return an abducted Israeli soldier. In December, Hamas declared an end to the truce and fired missiles into Israel. On the 27th, Israel started heavy bombing of Hamas-related installations in Gaza.

Moreover, Israeli ground troops advanced into Gaza in early January. According to a report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the total number of dead in Gaza reached 800, about 40 percent of whom were women and children.

Under threat of Israeli attack, the United Nations and other international organizations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) withdrew from Gaza, and many Gazans were deprived of relief supplies. Rissho Kosei-kai asked the Campaign for the Children of Palestine, a Japanese NGO that is a partner organization in the Little Bags of Dreams Campaign, to fund emergency aid with the purchase and distribution of food and other daily necessities to Gazans. The Campaign for the Children of Palestine also was to receive aid from Rissho Kosei-kai to help NGOs in Gaza provide emergency medical services.

January 13, 2009

[back to News Archive]