Türkiye is preparing to set up a field hospital near the Rafah border crossing to blockaded Gaza Strip, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Thursday.
“We are eager to make this hospital functional and start providing services as soon as possible,” Koca told reporters in Ankara.
Turkish authorities have agreed with Israeli and Egyptian Health Ministry officials for the swift establishment of the field hospital, which Koca assured would help treat patients “on the spot.”
He also said some 20 ambulances from Türkiye were waiting to cross into the Palestinian enclave once the field hospital was up and running.
Additionally, Koca informed us that efforts were underway to transfer more Palestinian patients to Türkiye.
Türkiye has so far brought 200 people from Gaza, including 114 patients, 26 of whom are children and their 86 guardians.
“We sadly lost two of our patients, one due to malignant melanoma and the other due to lung cancer. Seven of our patients are still in intensive care, but the rest are looking okay for now,” Koca said.
Israel has mounted a brutal offensive by air and ground against Gaza, killing more than 16,200 people, mostly children. The offensive was in retaliation to a Hamas incursion in southern Israel on Oct. 7, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 240 were taken captive.
Today, the U.N. says, almost 1.9 million, more than three-quarters of Gaza’s population, have been displaced and corralled into an ever-decreasing space in the southern Gaza Strip, where they have neither access to drinking water nor enough to eat.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said that only 10 of the territory’s 36 hospitals were still functioning, with the situation deteriorating since then. It said there are no functioning hospitals in northern Gaza.
Türkiye has harshly criticized Israel and offered unwavering support for Palestine, saying it will continue to make efforts to provide all kinds of support to the Palestinian people fully within the scope of humanitarian aid efforts.
In addition to over 1,500 tons of aid sent on two ships and 11 planes, Türkiye also sent nearly 700 tons of humanitarian aid and medical supplies, food, tents, sleeping bags, blankets, generators and hygiene supplies, as well as eight field hospitals and 20 ambulances to Egyptian town of Al-Arish bordering Gaza.
