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The secretary general of the Qatar Red Crescent (QRC), Saleh bin Ali al-Mohannadi, has received a delegation from Al Azhar University in Gaza. |
This was part of the delegation’s visit to QRC, Qatar Charity and Qatar University to discuss the status of Al Azhar University, the current post-war challenges, and possible co-operation to provide academic and construction support for the university.
Headed by Dr Abdelrahman Hamad, chairman of Al Azhar’s board of trustees, the delegation included university president Professor Abdelkhaleq al-Farra and project manager Mohamed Alwazir, and was accompanied by Dr Yahya Zakaria al-Agha, the vice-head of the Palestinian diplomatic mission to Doha.
Dr Khaled Diab, director of the QRC’s International Relief and Development Department, was also present.
During the meeting, al-Mohannadi welcomed the guests and stressed that the QRC and Qatar are always there to support “the brothers in Gaza”, the latest instance of which was the hefty Qatari donation pledged at the Cairo International Conference.
“We in Qatar consider Palestine our main cause and most of our assistance goes to Gaza. This is our duty. Despite the distance, we will never abandon our people in Gaza,” he added.
“We know that the situation is too bad and that reconstruction will take years. We will do our best to meet all the needs as soon as possible, particularly the projects requested by the Gaza official authorities,” al-Mohannadi said.
The head of the delegation gave an overview on the difficult situation and how they are trying to cope.
“The Gaza Strip is totally closed on its 1.8mn population. It has several higher education institutions serving no less than 100,000-110,000 students. Most of these institutions were badly damaged in the last war and many students lost their homes and parents,” Hamad said.
“We thank QRC for supporting us in the past and appreciate the continuous communication and co-operation with its Gaza office,” the Al Azhar chairman said, adding: “Sadly, the reconstruction programme has not yet been in place and there are strict restrictions on bringing construction material into Gaza under the siege. We always resort to our brothers in the QRC and our people in Qatar, under the leadership of HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.”
