An air ambulance carrying three children injured in Gaza during Israel’s constant bombardment landed at Ankara’s Esenboğa Airport on Thursday.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca welcomed the children, who were brought from Al-Arish Airport in Egypt.
The children will be taken to hospitals in Ankara. Koca told reporters that they brought in a 2-year-old boy and two girls ages 9 years old and 10 years old from Gaza. He said they were planning another evacuation of patients from Gaza on Friday, while crews were still in Egypt for the establishment of field hospitals for Gazans.
On Monday, 61 patients from Gaza hospitals were brought to Türkiye, along with 49 relatives accompanying them.
Koca said last week that Ankara wanted to bring back as many as possible of nearly 1,000 cancer patients from Gaza – most of whom are former patients of a Turkish-Palestinian hospital that shut down due to Israeli attacks.
The first 27 patients arrived in Ankara last Thursday. With the new arrivals, the number of patients brought from Gaza reached 103 people.
The Health Ministry has been in talks with Israeli officials for evacuations and to coordinate airlifts with the Egyptian Health Ministry. Egypt’s Rafah border crossing with Gaza is the only gateway for the besieged Palestinian city.
