As world humanitarian organizations scramble to get supplies into Gaza in the aftermath of a 23-day onslaught on the territory by the Israeli army, community activists and student groups are organizing an emergency fundraiser to help the cause.

Proceeds from a Feb. 6 dinner at Greenfield Manor, 4770 Greenfield Road in Dearborn, beginning at 6 p.m., will go to the group Islamic Relief, a widely respected, worldwide charity with direct access to Gazans.

Islamic Relief has a four-star rating by the nonprofit charity evaluator Charity Navigator.

Organizer of the Feb. 6 fundraiser and Islamic Relief volunteer Suhaib Al-Hanooti said the charity provides a secure, sure way of helping Palestinians who have been under a crippling siege over the past year and a half.

“People can feel secure,” he said, about donating to the group.

Some have grown weary about donating to Arab and Muslim charities as many groups have been targeted in recent years by law enforcement agencies who suspect any possibility of connections to political groups with perceived terrorist ties.

But Al-Hanooti said Islamic Relief, which fights poverty and provides emergency aid throughout the world, including a major, long-term campaign in the U.S. Gulf region after Hurrican Katrina, is very open about its operations.

“It has no political affiliation whatsoever. It’s strictly humanitarian,” he said. “It has a contract with the U.N. and it’s registered with Israel.”

The group also has rare, direct access to Gaza with facilities on the inside of the besieged coastal territory.

“As long as the U.N. gets through, IR gets through,” Al-Hanooti said.

The students who put together the Feb. 6 event, mostly from Wayne State University and the University of Michigan-Deaborn, plan to make a live, microphoned call during the dinner to Islamic Relief aid worker Hatem Shurrab in Gaza.

“We’re gonna call him up and he’s gonna give us what Islamic Relief has been able to do,” Al-Hanooti said. “He’s put his life on the line to help the people of Gaza.”

Diary entries written by Shurrab and featured by the BBC can be accessed through the group’s website, www.IRW.org.

Al-Hanooti said that since Dec. 27, when Israeli airstrikes in response to Hamas rockets began, about $6 million has been raised by Islamic Relief for Gaza from the U.S. alone.

Now, during a fragile and currently cracking ceasefire, the students believe the need to rush aid to the ailing, dense population is more urgent than ever.

“Now is a golden opportunity to get help to them,” Al-Hanooti said. “Now they begin the stage where they clean up everything and get everything back to the way it was.

“We’re looking for people to attend and help out as much as possible.”

The dinner will feature poetry readings and keynote speaker Dawud Walid of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Michigan.

For ticket or other information, contact Al-Hanooti at 313.213.8238 or sahanooti@hotmail.com, or contact co-organizer Wiam Alwan at 248.242.0585 or wiam.alwan@gmail.com.