ISTANBUL, November 9. /TASS/. Children with cancer from Gaza will be taken to Turkey for medical assistance, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced.

"We have agreed with the Israeli health minister that children with cancer who cannot complete their treatment will be taken [from Gaza] to Turkey. We will bring them soon," Turkey’s health chief said, without specifying the exact date, according to TRT Haber.

Earlier, Koca said that his country can accommodate around 1,000 patients who need emergency treatment, mostly those diagnosed with cancer, from the Gaza Strip.

The Turkish health minister also said that two Turkish vessels were ready to sail off for Egypt to take care of injured Gazans. The vessels have a permit from Egypt to call at its ports.

Tensions in the Middle East flared up again on October 7 when Hamas militants launched a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. The Palestinian radical movement described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total siege of Gaza and started carrying out strikes on the Palestinian enclave, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.