LAHORE: The Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) has announced a Rs20 million donation for the rehabilitation of Gaza hospitals and health care system.

The office bearers of the PIMA and Federation of Islamic Medical Association (FIMA), including Dr Tanveerul Hasan Zubairi, Dr Tariq Ismail, Dr Fakharuz Zaman and Dr Imran Zafar, said this in a press conference at the Lahore Press Club on Thursday.

FIMA President Dr Zubairi said the association had dispatched 23 truckloads of medical supplies to the Gaza Health Ministry.

He said a team of senior surgeons from Pakistan would visit Gaza in September. He said the unrelenting brutal assaults from air, sea and land by the Israeli forces on Gaza had resulted in over 2,000 deaths, mostly of civilians and children, and 9,700 severe injuries.

“More than 10,000 civilian homes have been destroyed displacing over 500,000 people,” Dr Zubairi said.In addition, mosques, schools, hospitals and primary health clinics were either severely damaged or destroyed.

“The FIMA and its partners (around 15 organisations and groups) responded immediately to this humanitarian crisis by supplying essential drugs, consumables and equipment as well as food, drinking water and other humanitarian aid," he said.

The associations have dispatched goods worth of $700,000 and medical supplies worth of Rs20 million to the affected hospitals of Gaza.

FIMA and PIMA office-bearers condemned the violations of humanitarian laws and called for a permanent ceasefire and viable resolution to the conflict in the occupied territories of Palestine.

They pledged to support the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the health services in Gaza. They also urged the public at large to donate generously for the Gaza medical relief and requested medical doctors to be a part of the volunteer team which would be sent to Gaza next month.

The required specialties include orthopedic surgery, vascular and plastic surgery. The team of doctors will be headed by senior vascular surgeon Prof Dr Muhammad Iqbal Khan.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2014