Ankara is ready to send a hospital ship and field hospitals to Gaza after a brutal airstrike by Israel killed more than 500 people in a Gaza hospital overnight, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Wednesday morning.
Koca said in a social media post that Türkiye was prepared to provide health care services "for our Palestinian brothers and sisters."
Türkiye already sent three cargo planes loaded with humanitarian aid to Egypt, for aid delivery to Gaza through the Rafah border crossing.
The minister said they were engaged in talks with international health organizations to coordinate aid. He stated that he held talks with his international counterparts as well as senior executives of the World Health Organization (WHO) after "the inhumane attack" on Tuesday and stressed that it is unacceptable that health institutions treating people were attacked, regardless of the justification.
"I told WHO Europe director Hans Kluge in my phone call that supporting the region in terms of health care was an urgent matter. We are ready to act together with the WHO and I stressed that the WHO has a historic responsibility on this matter," Koca said. He said Ahmed al-Mandhari, WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, responded positively to their suggestions on the matter and they decided to launch cooperation with Türkiye immediately.
"Despite all diplomatic challenges, Türkiye will stand with innocent people, babies, children and the elderly. We are going through days where people have to decide whether they should stand with humanity. We have nothing else to heed than our conscience. The people of Palestine are our brothers and sisters," Koca said.
In response to Koca's post, Kluge extended his sincere thanks to the minister and the ministry "for their partnership at this crucial time. "WHO and humanitarian partners are working to reach necessary medical and other supplies to facilities and patients in need, for which safe access is vital," Kluge said.
Türkiye's state-run aid institutions and nongovernmental organizations have been at the forefront of efforts to aid the people of Gaza and other Palestinian cities before Israel's latest brutal siege. The Gaza Strip is also home to the Türkiye-Palestine Friendship Hospital built by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA). Hospital officials have recently said that most services at the hospital came to a halt due to fuel shortages stemming from the Israeli blockade.
The Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) called for the opening of a humanitarian aid corridor to Gaza after the hospital attack. Its chair, Fatma Meriç Yılmaz, told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Wednesday that they urged the world to raise its voice against such attacks and pave the way for the delivery of humanitarian aid to people in Gaza.
Yılmaz pointed out that there were certain rules sides should follow in the conflict and one of those basic rules was allowing humanitarian aid and avoiding targeting civilians. Yılmaz said that the attacked hospital was a place where the injured, children were being treated and hospitals were already challenged by a lack of power due to the blockade. She noted that babies at the hospitals as well as patients in need of respirators depended on electricity.
"Turkish Red Crescent treated not only (Turkish) soldiers but also soldiers of enemy forces during World War I. There is a principle of honor even during wartime. People clash but civilians, women and children are never targeted. It is unthinkable how a place like a hospital is targeted. We condemn it," she said. Yılmaz said they coordinated aid to Gaza with the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) but their aid was still on the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza amid the blockade. She added that their general manager visited Egypt on Tuesday to discuss aid delivery with officials.
She said they would deliver aid as soon as the Rafah crossing is opened. She added that they also had air workers in Gaza who were working with limited resources to deliver aid on behalf of the Turkish Red Crescent. On Koca's remarks about setting up hospitals, Yılmaz said they were ready to give any assistance for field hospitals. She noted that they also joined forces with other aid organizations to send a vessel carrying aid to Gaza. "We have an ongoing aid campaign for Palestine and we only accept cash for now since there is not a humanitarian aid corridor yet," she said.