An eighth ship carrying humanitarian aid is set to depart from Türkiye’s southern coast on Thursday for Gaza where Palestinians face famine almost six months into Israel’s devastating military campaign.

Türkiye, which has denounced Israel for its offensive in densely populated Gaza and called for an immediate cease-fire, has sent tens of thousands of tons of humanitarian aid there since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza on Oct. 7 and aims to increase it during the holy month of Ramadan.

The ship was prepared by the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) in cooperation with the General Directorate of Foundations. It will depart from the Mersin Port at 1 p.m. local time.

The ship is laden with supplies weighing 2,960 tons, including 125,000 food parcels and other materials.

Türkiye, under the coordination of the AFAD and with the support of civil society organizations, has so far sent 13 planes and seven ships carrying humanitarian aid supplies to the Palestinian people.

With the combined efforts of ship voyages, air bridge operations, local procurement and cooperation with the U.N. Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), the total humanitarian aid sent has reached 39,607 tons.

To meet the water needs of civilians in the Gaza Strip, another project was launched in collaboration with the Egyptian Red Crescent to supply bottled water. So far, a total of 1,126 tons of water has been delivered to the region through weekly shipments of five trucks.

Direct aid to Gaza

The independent Turkish aid agency Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) too on Wednesday presented two new vessels meant to take aid directly to Gaza.

IHH Chairperson Bülent Yıldırım inspected the new ships, purchased for a Gaza aid project dubbed "International Freedom Flotilla," in Istanbul's port and said that one of the vessels, the Anadolu (Anatolia), had a capacity of 5,500 tons.

The Anadolu is to be loaded with aid items while the other vessel will carry humanitarian personnel including doctors.

It was not immediately known when the ships would depart for Gaza or where or how they would deliver aid once there.

Türkiye has so far sent its aid to Gaza through neighboring Egypt.

In 2010, the IHH sent an aid vessel to Gaza in an attempt to breach an Israeli blockade, but it was intercepted by the Israeli military in a deadly offshore raid, which touched off a diplomatic crisis between the two countries.

Currently, aid agencies say only about a fifth of needed supplies are entering Gaza as Israel persists with an air and ground offensive that has shattered the coastal enclave, pushing parts to the verge of famine.

They say that deliveries by air drop or by sea directly onto Gaza's beaches are no substitute for increased supplies coming in by land via Israel or Egypt.

Israel says it puts no limit on the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza and blames problems in it reaching civilians within the enclave on U.N. agencies, which it says are inefficient. Aid groups blame Israel's blockade and red tape.

In the 2010 incident, nine pro-Palestinian activists aboard the aid ship were killed and a tenth died in 2014 after years in a coma.

Turkish-Israeli ties

Turkish-Israeli relations have historically been rocky due to disputes over the Palestinian cause. The pair was in the process of normalizing their relations when the new round of conflict broke out. Ankara shelved normalization plans and vowed to pursue the rights of Palestinians after Oct. 7.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Palestinian territory since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas.

At least 32,414 Palestinians have since been killed and 74,787 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

On Monday, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza during Ramadan, but Israel rejected it and vowed to continue its war on the Palestinian enclave.

The Israeli war, now in its 173rd day, has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the U.N.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

The new round of conflict is accompanied by a barrage of online disinformation campaigns and biased coverage, especially in the Western media adopting a pro-Israeli narrative.

Earlier, Türkiye denied claims on social media that the country delivered thermal underwear for Israeli troops when a photo showing "Made in Turkey" labels on a shipment of military equipment to the Israeli army surfaced.

Türkiye also faced false claims of "genocide" toward the Kurds by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself after Ankara accused the Israeli administration of war crimes toward innocent Palestinians.