Turkiye will send a plane with medicines and medical specialists to Egypt on Sunday to help refugees from the Gaza Strip, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Saturday.
"To provide aid to Gaza, a plane belonging to our Presidency is leaving tomorrow morning for Egypt with medicine and medical consumables. There will be a physician group consisting of 20 specialists on the plane … Our expert team of 20 persons will identify with the Egyptian authorities the medicines, medical consumables and devices needed by the people of Gaza," Koca said on X.
The minister added that the Turkish medical specialists would also carry out "the feasibility works for our field hospitals to be established at El-Arish Airport and Rafah Border Gate."
"Simultaneously with these activities, we are planning to send the medicines, medical consumables and medical devices in the list of needs previously submitted by the Egyptian Ministry of Health to El-Arish Airport with our 3 cargo planes," Koca said, adding that later, Ankara will send the field hospitals and ambulances.
On October 7, Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise large-scale rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip and breached the border, killing and seizing people in neighboring Israeli communities. Israel launched retaliatory strikes and ordered a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to more than 2 million people, cutting off supplies of water, food and fuel. The blockade was later eased to allow trucks with humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The escalation of the conflict has resulted in thousands of people killed and injured on both sides.
