Gaza receives Turkish humanitarian aid

The Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) has delivered a shipment of aid to the Palestinian Red Crescent and the aid was allowed through the Rafah border crossing, according to a Kızılay official.

Turkish press reported on Friday that Imad Abu Matar, a Kızılay official in Gaza, said the shipment entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing on Friday.

Abu Matar was quoted as saying that the humanitarian aid that was delivered is a small part of the total aid and that it was allowed through the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing this time while the remaining part will enter Gaza through gates along the border with Israel.

Saying a large amount of money has been collected in Turkey to help people in the Gaza Strip, Abu Matar said they plan to buy more relief materials inside Gaza or another place close by, to distribute it to the people who were displaced or injured during the recent Israeli offensive.

According to the reports, the shipment included 92 tons of sugar, while more food and medical aid are scheduled to be delivered in the coming days via the Kerem Shalom crossing between Gaza and Israel.

In remarks to Today's Zaman, Israeli Embassy Chargé d'Affaires Yosef Levi-Sfari said on Thursday that “under Israel's humanitarian policy, which aims at allowing humanitarian assistance activities to all those who wish to take part in transferring aid to Gaza, Israel has been fully cooperating with the Turkish authorities in facilitating the transfer of goods and aid to Gaza, along with the transfer of wounded Palestinians to Turkey."

Israelis and Palestinians reached an open-ended cease-fire brokered by Egypt late on Tuesday to end a campaign that left more than 2,200 people dead and caused widespread destruction in Gaza. The bloody conflict began on July 8 when Israel bombed dozens of sites in Gaza in a strike against Hamas after finding the bodies of three Israeli teenagers who had been abducted. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of being responsible for the deaths and warned the group that it "will pay." The killing of the Israeli teens was followed by the slaying of a Palestinian youth in what was likely a revenge attack.

There are 1.8 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip. Turkey has evacuated many wounded Palestinians from there to Turkey for medical treatment, and is seeking to transfer many others as well.