Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Monday that they were in talks with relevant authorities and considering setting up field hospitals inside Gaza, in "a safe zone." Koca was speaking at an airport in the capital Ankara as he welcomed Palestinian patients airlifted from Gaza through Egypt.
On Monday, 61 patients were brought to Türkiye from Gaza by a military cargo plane. Koca said they have airlifted 88 patients so far and were planning new evacuations soon.
Koca was in Egypt on Nov. 15 where he held talks with his Egyptian counterpart for evacuations. Türkiye initially brought 27 patients and relatives and families attending to their care to a hospital in Ankara. Most of them are cancer patients, like those flown to Ankara on Monday.
The minister said he had a phone call with his Israeli counterpart after another call with his Egyptian counterpart, and they were coordinating the efforts for patients. "We discussed establishing a field hospital in a secure location within Gaza. "I conveyed to them our desire to visit Gaza to find a location for the hospital, and they responded positively," he said.
"We will continue our health diplomacy," he said. Koca also pointed out that they were working on establishing field hospitals in Egypt, in the immediate vicinity of the Rafah border crossing, Gaza's only gateway to the outside world amid the Israeli blockade.
"Türkiye will continue standing with the oppressed, be the voice of justice and rights, and stand with its friends, brothers and sisters in all times," the minister said.
Palestinian officials said a field hospital sent by Jordan entered the Gaza Strip on Monday, the first since the conflict began on Oct. 7. "The hospital will be established in Khan Yunis, to receive the wounded and the sick, under the catastrophic conditions the southern hospitals are experiencing, with the influx of hundreds of wounded each day and continued aggressive aerial and artillery strikes," said Mohammed Zaqout, director-general of Gaza's hospitals. There are around 30,000 wounded people across Gaza, according to the Health Ministry. The death toll in Gaza has hit 13,000, mostly civilians, the ministry said Sunday.
Weeks of intense bombardment and severe shortages of fuel and medical supplies have meant most Gaza hospitals have stopped functioning. Aed Yaghi, head of medical aid in Gaza, said the field hospital will help ease the pressure on existing health services. "The number of medical personnel is limited and there aren't (enough) ambulances," Yaghi told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The Jordanian field hospital reached Gaza accompanied by 170 personnel and 40 trucks of medical aid.
All goods and individuals entering Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt are subject to Israeli approval. The head of Gaza's crossings authority, Hisham Adwan, said six ambulances from Kuwait also entered the territory on Monday.