ANKARA: More than two dozen Palestinian cancer patients, many of them children, who have crossed from Gaza into Egypt will be brought for treatment to Turkey, Turkey's health minister said Wednesday.
Turkey has sent a ship loaded with material for field hospitals, ambulances and generators to Egypt to treat civilians who have been able to flee Israel's military operation against Hamas militants in the enclave.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in response to its attacks on October 7, which killed an estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw 240 hostages taken to Gaza.
The Hamas-run territory's health ministry says Israel's ensuing aerial bombardment and ground offensive have killed 11,320 people, mostly civilians and including thousands of children.
Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said 26 Palestinian cancer patients had entered Egypt through the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday.
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"We plan to take these 26 patients to Turkey today," he said in televised remarks from the El Arish airport in Egypt.
He said the group will be flown to Turkey "with 13 companions", without specifying whether these were doctors or family members.
Koca added that Turkey was waiting for Egypt's permission to open its first field hospital at the Rafah crossing.
"I hope that in the near future -- our efforts are going in this direction -- we will be able to establish a field hospital in Gaza, in the area near the Rafah gate," he said.
Turkey, a mostly Muslim but officially secular nation, has long championed the Palestinian cause and, more recently, has stepped up its verbal attacks against Israel for the soaring civilian toll of its military operation.
Speaking before members of his Islamic-rooted ruling party, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called Israel "a terror state" that was committing "genocide".
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