Over 100 Gaza evacuees set to arrive in Turkey for treatment

Reuters

More than 100 evacuees from Gaza were set to arrive in Turkey on Nov. 20, including dozens of people who will receive medical treatment there, Turkey's health minister and foreign ministry spokesman said.

Sixty-one patients, accompanied by 49 relatives, arrived in Egypt from Gaza on Nov. 19 evening and were scheduled to fly to Ankara on Nov. 20  after spending the night at Al Arish hospital, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.

He said last week that Ankara wanted to bring as many of the nearly 1,000 cancer patients from Gaza to Turkey as possible. The first 27 patients arrived in Ankara on Nov 27.

Separately, a group of 87 people, consisting of Turks, Turkish Cypriots and their relatives, arrived in Egypt from Gaza on Nov. 19 and was set to fly to Istanbul late on Nov. 20, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Öncü Keçeli said.

Forty-four Turks who travelled from Gaza to Egypt at the weekend arrived in Istanbul on Nov. 19, footage shared by the foreign ministry showed.

Keçeli also said that if conditions on the ground permit, Turkey aimed to get around 100 more people out of Gaza on Nov. 20.

Speaking at the budget talks in the Parliament, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said, "Until today, we have secured the exit from Gaza of 170 of our citizens and their relatives, Turkey's efforts to get its 983 citizens out of Gaza were continuing.

Previously, Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmet Yıldız said some 700 people, including Turkish, Palestinian, and northern Cypriot citizens, had applied to Turkey to be evacuated from Gaza. Around 300 of them were Turkish citizens.