Türkiye condemned in strongest terms the Israeli airstrike on the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in the Gaza Strip on Monday.
"There is no explanation for such an attack, which was carried out despite the fact that all necessary information, including the coordinates of the aforementioned hospital, which happens to be the only cancer hospital in Gaza, was shared with Israeli authorities in advance," the ministry said.
The ministry reiterated that Israel's "inhumane attacks" explicitly violate international law and aim to strip Palestinians of the most basic rights, and that it needs to stop indiscriminately targeting the residents of Gaza en masse.
Israeli jets struck the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in Gaza, the blockaded enclave's only hospital for cancer patients on Monday.
"Israeli warplanes bombed the third floor of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, the only hospital in Gaza for cancer patients," Dr. Subhi Skaik told Anadolu Agency (AA).
He added that the Israeli bombing "caused extensive damage, as a fire broke out in the floor before being contained."
Skaik also said the Israeli bombing damaged some of the electromechanical systems and exposed medical staff and patients alike to danger.
In an earlier statement, he said that the Israeli army had repeatedly bombed the vicinity of the hospital in recent days.
The Turkish government funded the construction of the hospital in the period between 2011-2017, making it the largest hospital in Palestine with an area of 34,800 square meters (375,000 square feet) over six floors and with a capacity of 180 beds.
With fuel nearly running out in the besieged enclave where there are over 9,000 cancer patients, the hospital is also on the brink of halting operations altogether, according to World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic.
Health care in Gaza is already under enormous pressure due to a lack of fuel and materials, with thousands of injured and patients in need of care, Jasarevic told AA Tuesday from WHO’s Cairo office where he was forced to relocate due to clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters.
"The cancer patients at the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital are at risk of losing health care services if fuel isn't supplied immediately. The hospital is currently unable to provide certain services due to the fuel shortage," Jasarevic said.
Some eight hospitals with surgical capacity currently provide partial services in southern Gaza but seven major hospitals hosting countless displaced families have reached over 119% in bed occupancy rate, he explained.
Thanking health care workers for their professionalism and bravery under "impossible conditions," the WHO official reiterated his call for safe access to humanitarian aid and a cease-fire in Gaza.
So far, only 20 aid trucks daily have entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing but even before the Oct. 7 conflict broke out, Gaza needed 400 trucks and a minimum of 100 trucks of humanitarian aid, according to Fatma Meriç Yılmaz, the head of the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay).
"People around the globe are burning to help Gaza but collecting aid isn’t enough. We know this trickling aid is not enough. Humanitarian aid zones must not be bombed," Yılmaz told reporters in Ankara Tuesday.
The bombing and the subsequent severe damage dealt to hospitals, places of worship, schools and humanitarian aid zones, including the logistics warehouse built by the Turkish Red Crescent for the Palestinian Red Crescent, which is currently out of commission, aren’t acceptable, Yılmaz stressed.
She said the Red Crescent has penned letters to the embassies of permanent United Nations Security Council members, reiterating that people bear a historic burden to protect humanitarian law, the rule of law and the honor of humanity.