Türkiye sent two more cargo planes to Egypt on Monday carrying medical equipment and supplies for Gaza, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, adding two more aircraft would be sent with more supplies.
Earlier this month, Türkiye sent three aircraft carrying aid for Gaza. On Sunday, it also sent a medical team and supplies to Egypt, saying Ankara was ready to treat wounded Palestinians in Türkiye, if needed, and to set up a field hospital at Egypt's El Arish Airport and Rafah border crossing.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Koca said the cargo planes carried medicine, generators, medical supplies, incubators for babies, phototherapy machinery, diapers and baby food.
Among the medical supplies, he said, were emergency response equipment, operating tables, ventilators, ultrasound machines and orthopedic supplies for those wounded in the fighting.
"The four planes of health support that are being planned for Gaza as aid will be sent from Egypt to Gaza via highways," he added.
Turkish authorities had previously said preparations were underway to lend a helping hand to people in Gaza, who are in dire need of care and support.
"We continue to extend our helping hand to Gaza. We have begun loading aid packages, mostly containing medical supplies," the National Defense Ministry had said.
A Turkish presidential aircraft, loaded with medicines and medical supplies destined for the Gaza Strip, traveled from Ankara to Cairo on Sunday. A group of 20 expert health care professionals were also on board the plane.
Humanitarian aid deliveries through Rafah began Saturday after wrangling over procedures for inspecting the aid and after bombardments on the Gaza side of the border had left relief materials stranded in Egypt.
So far, three aid convoys have entered Gaza from Rafah, but carrying a fraction of the amount U.N. officials say is needed to meet the essential needs of Gaza, which is home to 2.3 million people.
A third convoy of relief trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Monday, one day after 20 trucks entered the area, the first aid shipment since Israel imposed a complete siege.
All three shipments entered from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, the sole route into Gaza not controlled by Israel.
