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Turkey says ready to receive some 1,000 patients from Gaza

According to Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, two Turkish ships are about to leave for Egypt to offer treatment to those wounded in Gaza

ANKARA, November 5. /TASS/. Turkey can receive some 1,000 patients from the Gaza Strip who need emergency treatment, first of all cancer patients, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Sunday.

"We are making effort to evacuate to Egypt via the Rafah border crossing around 1,000 patients and wounded people who need emergency treatment, especially cancer patients of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in Gaza, which had to stop its operation. After that, it is planned to take the cancer patients and those is grave condition to our country by ambulance planes and hospital ships," he said.

According to Koca, two Turkish ships are about to leave for Egypt to offer treatment to those wounded in Gaza. The ships have already obtained permits to call at Egyptian ports.

Tensions flared up in the Middle East after Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip attacked Israeli territory, killing many Israelis living in the settlements near the border and abducting more than 200 people, including children, women and the elderly. Hamas views its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ steps against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.