Armenia Sends Humanitarian Aid to Gaza

YEREVAN — Armenia sent on Thursday a planeload of humanitarian aid to Gaza ravaged by the latest conflict with Israel.

The Armenian government said the 30 tons of food and medicine will be delivered to displaced civilians huddling in the Gaza Strip’s city of Rafah. It released photographs of those items loaded onto a military transport plane at the Yerevan airport.

Speaking during a cabinet meeting in Yerevan earlier in the day, Deputy Interior Minister Arpine Sargsyan said the aid worth about 19 million drams ($48,000) will be airlifted to Egypt. Egyptian authorities will then help to ship it to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, she said.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted in this regard that the Armenian and Egyptian governments agreed on the logistical aspects of the shipment during his recent official visit to Cairo.

Gaza is facing a looming famine amid Israel’s military offensive that has reportedly killed more than 32,000 Palestinians. The offensive followed last October’s Hamas attack on southern Israel in which the militants killed 1,200 people and abducted more than 250 others.

Armenia twice voted late last year for United Nations General Assembly resolutions demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.

“Armenia regrets tens of thousands of innocent victims of the escalation of hostilities in Gaza,” Pashinyan said after his March 5 talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. “We ourselves have experienced the horror of attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, and we join calls of the international community for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.”