Turkish foundation provides Eid meat to Gaza’s poor

With financial assistance from Turkey's Diyanet Vakfi Foundation, Gaza's Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs has distributed meat to thousands of poor Gazan families for the Eid al-Adha holiday, the ministry announced Monday.

"The ministry distributed meat from more than 100 cows sacrificed for the Eid to some 20,000 poor families throughout the Gaza Strip," read a ministry statement.

The Hamas-run ministry put the total cost of the initiative at some $200,000, which was borne by the Turkish charitable foundation.

The ministry went on to thank the foundation -- along with the Turkish government -- for the humanitarian assistance that it regularly provides to Gaza's poor.

For the last 10 years, the Gaza Strip's two million inhabitants have groaned under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade that has deprived them of many basic commodities, including food and medicine.

As a result, an estimated 80 percent of the strip's population now depends on international aid to survive, according to official estimates.