Amid Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, calls have emerged from around the world to allow humanitarian assistance into the war-torn area.

A widely-shared social media post recently claimed that Pakistan and Turkey’s aid had arrived in Gaza. However, the claim does not seem to be accurate. However, the images showing Pakistan’s Al-Khidmat workers distributing aid in Gaza are neither fake nor old. They are the latest.

This article solves the mystery of how a Pakistani NGO was found distributing aid packages in Gaza.

The posts about Pakistani aid was made by a handle on X (formerly Twitter) named @ZynabAlAziz on Wednesday.

The poster identifies herself as a Palestinian journalist working out of Gaza. The post reached more than two million people.

The initial response denying the claim came from Refaat Alareer, a Palestinian academic who had recently gone viral on social media for his interview on BBC.

“We salute the sentiments of all supporters especially in Turkey and Pakistan. But this is not correct,” he wrote.

However, a decisive answer came when Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, spokesperson for the Pakistan Foreign Office, told a press briefing that Pakistan was preparing to dispatch its first batch of aid on Thursday.

Baloch said that 100 tonnes of aid including medical supplies and tents would depart on a chartered plane on Thursday afternoon. The plane would reach Egypt from where it will be sent to Gaza.

It is also worth noting, that US President Joe Biden claimed on Thursday morning that he had spoken to Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al-SIsi for the creation of to open the border crossing for ‘upto 20 aid trucks’.

Since Biden’s statement came after the post on X was created, it is unlikely that any aid had arrived in Gaza from outside till this point.

In subsequent replies, the account claimed that the aid from Pakistan had come through the Al-Khidmat Foundation. However, the claim still cannot be taken to mean that aid arrived from outside.

Abdul Shakoor, vice president of the Alkhidmat Foundation, told a recent TV interview that the foundation has been working in Gaza for several years along with other international organizations.

However, he confirmed that at the present moment, aid packages being distributed inside the Gaza Strip only comprised of materials that were already within its borders and no new aid had been sent from outside.

Shakoor did add that the foundation was sending ‘money’ to help procure medicines in Gaza. He also said that Pakistanis should be ready to help Palestine as the siege would ultimately lifted.