Turkish agency sends humanitarian aid to Gaza


The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) on Thursday said that a fresh aid consignment has been delivered to displaced Palestinians in the bombed Gaza Strip."Twenty trucks loaded with humanitarian aid and food supplies went through crossed via the Karam Abu Salem border crossing into the southern Gaza Strip," Muhammed Murteca, Gaza's TIKA representative, told Anadolu Agency.He added the shipment aims at reaching 20,000 displaced Palestinian families, amid a devastating Israeli operation on the Gaza Strip which has killed over 1434 and displaced tens of thousands of others.Israel has been pounding the Gaza Strip for nearly four weeks with fierce aerial, naval and ground assaults with the ostensible aim of halting rocket fire from the strip.Gaza-based resistance factions, meanwhile, have continued to fire rockets at Israeli cities in response to relentless Israeli bombardments.According to official Israeli figures, 56 Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed since the hostilities began.Israel's military offensive, dubbed operation "Protective Edge," is the self-proclaimed Jewish state's third major offensive against the densely-populate Gaza Strip – which is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians – within the last six years.In 2008/9, over 1500 Palestinians were killed in Israel's three-week-long operation "Cast Lead."