ANKARA, October 10. /TASS/. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that many people will die in the Gaza Strip if US aircraft carrier the Gerald R. Ford, dispatched to the Eastern Mediterranean amid the escalation, gets involved in the conflict.

"What business does this US aircraft carrier have in Israel? Why is it going there? Will it launch all its planes, speedboats, surround Gaza and keep striking it, opening the door to very serious mass deaths?" he said during a press conference with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer in Ankara.

Erdogan also noted that the incident involving a Turkish drone, downed by US forces in Syria is not in the spirit of the allied relationship between the two countries.

"The US has 23 military bases in Syria. What are they doing there? Aren’t there too many of them? Unfortunately, America downed an unmanned Turkish aerial vehicle. But isn’t Turkey the US’ partner in NATO? How are we going to explain this? This does not correspond to the spirit of allied relations between us," Erdogan said.

On October 5, Pentagon Spokesman Patrick Ryder announced that US F-16 jet fighters downed a Turkish drone over Syria because of its proximity to US forces on the ground. According to Ryder, the US "has no grounds" to believe that Turkey "deliberately targeted US forces.".