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Türkiye, Egypt to arrange patient transfers out of besieged Gaza

Tukiye and Egypt will reportedly work to transfer injured Palestinians and cancer patients out of Gaza as Israeli attacks continue.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca and his Egyptian counterpart Khaled Abdel Ghaffar met in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss medical aid supplies for Gaza and the transfer of cancer patients to Türkiye.

The pair later paid a visit to the Nasr Research Institute Hospital in Cairo to see patients pulled out of the Gaza Strip.

The ministers chatted briefly with all patients and handed gifts to children as they were briefed about their conditions.

When Koca suggested transferring a Palestinian woman who had sustained injuries to her face, Abdel Ghaffar said he would be concerned with the matter.

At the joint news conference that followed their hospital visit, Koca announced Gazan children and cancer patients would first be taken to Egypt, then transferred to Türkiye via ambulance jets.

“We plan to carry out the treatment of these patients with the cooperation of Turkish and Egyptian medical teams,” he told reporters.

In the past month, Koca held numerous video conferences and phone calls with his Israeli and Egyptian counterparts for the transfer of patients in the besieged Palestinian enclave through the Rafah border crossing.

A coordination team was thus formed, with contact persons from Türkiye, Egypt and Israel, which Koca said would oversee the diplomacy efforts about the transfers.

Thanking Abdel Ghaffar for his “constructive” cooperation in the matter, Koca said, “We will overcome these challenges through a powerful solidarity.”

The two ministers agreed at their meeting to maintain close cooperation in all medical fields, including sharing information and experience, Koca added.

Already hit by a 16-year Israeli blockade, since the start of the current conflict over a month ago, Gaza has been cut off from water, electricity and fuel supplies, with many hospitals having to shut down as a result.

This makes aid deliveries from countries like Türkiye a critical lifeline to Gaza, which has been under relentless bombing campaign by Israel since Oct. 7, in the wake of an unprecedented incursion by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Israel.

Türkiye already sent eight planeloads of medicine, medical consumables, devices and generators to Gaza via coordination with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, including a ship carrying 500 tons of aid on Saturday.

At least 11,320 Palestinians have been killed in brutal Israeli strikes, including over 7,800 women and children and more than 2,200 others have been injured. The Israeli death toll is nearly 1,200, according to official figures.

Since Oct. 7, Ankara has been a vocal supporter of Palestinians in Gaza as Erdoğan slammed Western countries for “watching the massacre from afar,” urging them to put pressure on Israel to cease its attacks and human rights violations in the blockaded city.

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