As was noted here recently, the BBC is one of the few media organisations to have permanent offices in the Gaza Strip and thus – according to BBC News’ Foreign Editor – is “better placed than many to make sure that we report both sides of the story”.
Given that the BBC frequently reports on poverty in the Gaza Strip and has focused no small amounts of its energies on reporting the plight of civilians in general and the topic of reconstruction in particular since the end of last summer’s conflict between Israel and Hamas, one might have thought that the news that a ‘charity’ in the Gaza Strip with recently reconstructed headquarters was handing out millions of dollars would have been deemed worthy of one article at least.
The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center informs us that:
“On April 12, 2015, the Al-Ansar charity association in the Gaza Strip announced that $2 million would be distributed among 5,000 families of Gazan shaheeds who had died between the beginning of the second intifada (2000) and June 31, 2014, that is, before the outbreak of Operation Protective Edge. On April 5, 2015, Al-Ansar said in a statement that the financial support was funded by the Palestinian branch of the Iranian Martyrs Foundation.
On January 18, 2015, Al-Ansar in the Gaza Strip posted a notice on its Facebook page to Gazans whose family members had been killed in Operation Protective Edge and who had not yet registered with the society. They were requested to go to the Al-Ansar offices with a death certificate, a picture of the deceased, medical reports, and similar relevant documents, so that the transfer of funds could be arranged. In ITIC assessment, based on an average payment of $400 per family, the Iranian Martyrs Foundation can be expected to transfer an additional $900,000 for the families of Gazans killed in Operation Protective Edge (for approximately 2,200 families) once registration and bureaucratic procedures have been completed. Payment will mainly be made through branches of the post office in the Gaza Strip. […]
On January 26, 2015, Al-Ansar opened its new building in Gaza City after its former offices had been attacked and destroyed by the Israeli Air Force during Operation Protective Edge. Its construction was financed by the Palestinian branch of the Iranian Martyrs Foundation.”
Read the whole report here.
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