MOSCOW, August 7 (RIA Novosti) - The Australian Football League (AFL) has refused to run a series of advertisements calling for humanitarian aid to Gaza, arguing that they were political in nature, ABC reported.
"All of a sudden, it's been dragged down this road of a political activist campaign, which it's not," the Australian broadcaster quoted Australian businessman Daniel Milky, who offered to pay for the advertisements, as saying.
"It's simply a humanitarian callout to get people to donate to help these poor children in that region," Milky added.
Earlier, the advertisements went through a number of drafts and were approved by the management of the Australian Adelaide Crows football club.
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon argued that the reason why AFL has refused to run advertisements remains unclear.
"This doesn't make sense. If a child is injured as a result of a tsunami or an earthquake, the AFL has run free campaigns to urge donations. Here we have a situation where someone's willing to pay for an ad for kids injured as a result of a bomb attack, but that's not good enough for the AFL," Xenophon said in an interview to ABC.
Earlier, a full-page advertisement was launched across British national newspapers, stating the names of hundreds of children killed in Gaza so far.
The Israeli Broadcasting Authority had previously banned a radio advertisement from a human rights organization in Israel that listed the names of some children killed in the Gaza conflict.
According to the latest UNICEF statistics, the conflict in Gaza has killed 408 children and has injured 2,502. The head of the UNICEF office in Gaza Pernille Ironside said that 373,000 children have had traumatic experiences and need psychological support.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive on July 8, targeting the Hamas movement and its allied groups of rebels.
At least 1,800 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed since the conflict started, while Israel has lost 67 people.
A 72-hour ceasefire, agreed with the help of Egypt’s mediation, went into effect Tuesday morning. On Wednesday, an Israeli official confirmed that Israel has conditionally agreed to extend a ceasefire beyond Friday’s deadline, but did not reveal any further details.
An Israeli delegation is currently in Cairo negotiating a more permanent agreement with a Palestinian delegation that includes members of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement.
