The Government of Maldives will donate two million cans of tuna to aid the Palestinian people, Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid has confirmed in a post to social media on Tuesday.
“This donation is a symbol of our deepest solidarity with the people of Palestine,” Shahid said, underscoring the decision by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.
The government and the people of Maldives will always stand with the people of Palestine, in their struggle to achieve self-determination and lasting peace, the minister said.
Maldives has a long, committed, history of advocating for the rights of Palestine and is among the nations which called for a tenth emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) following the veto cast by the United States, on 18 October, on a draft resolution addressing the grave situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
Since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, Israeli forces have killed over 5,791 Palestinians and wounded more than 15,000. The majority of casualties are women and children with the daily death toll and number of wounded rising exponentially. Entire generations of families have been wiped out in what many observers call “a clear act of genocide and war crimes against the Palestinian people, carried out by Israel’s oppressive apartheid regime.”
The Israeli offensive has frequently targeted hospitals, residential buildings, shelters, journalists, and aid convoys. A Maldives-based NGO, the International Aid Campaign (IAC), had one of its vehicles shot at, and its warehouse was targeted by Israeli forces, resulting in the destruction of several humanitarian aid supplies.
