Turkish aid official takes Gaza’s ‘dust bucket challenge’

A Turkish aid official in the blockaded Gaza Strip has joined a trending campaign to support ALS research, but instead of pouring ice-cold water over himself, he used dust in solidarity with the children of Gaza.
      
“This is an alternate to the ‘ice bucket challenge’ because the children of Gaza get buried under the rubble of their bombed-out homes,” said Mehmet Kaya, a representative of Turkey’s Humanitarian Relief Foundation (İHH) in Gaza.
      
“This is Gaza, the heart of Palestine, where children and women are killed by tons of bombs falling on their heads,” he said.
      
At least 2,109 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed and more than 10,000 others injured in Israeli attacks since July 7, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
      
The Israeli onslaught has also left a trail of massive destruction in the besieged coastal enclave, home to some 1.8 million people.
      
Kaya said he was sending a message to the leaders and scholars of the Muslim world.
      
“You should take a bucket of dust and pour it over your heads to feel the injustice perpetrated against people of Gaza,” he added.
      
Several celebrities around the world have taken the ice bucket challenge and posted their videos on the internet to help raise money for and awareness about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disease.