UAE launches food aid program for Gazans

DUBAI (Xinhua) - United Arab Emirates (UAE) launched an international humanitarian project to provide urgent food relief globally with the first-aid flights heading for Gaza on Saturday, state news agency WAM reported.

UAE's Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum said the country's humanitarian program will be a joint effort together with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and the UN World Food Program.

The aids, including 100,000 meals, will be transported to Gaza in the coming days, and will be followed by more flights according to the situation of the scale of the displaced Populations in the Gaza Strip.

The new relief project is named after "Salma," the first Emirati woman nurse who served for more than 50 years to save people's lives in the UAE.

This project came as a 12-hour humanitarian truce between the Israeli army and Palestine Islamic Hamas movement ended.

Israel has been carrying out a large-scale offensive on the coastal enclave since July 8, proclaiming that the aim of the operation is to defang Hamas and other Gaza militants, which left over 1,000 Palestinians and 40 Israeli killed.

Earlier on July 10, UAE President Sheihk Khalifa Bin Zayed allocated $25 million to send urgent aid for the Palestinians under attack from the Israeli army.