ANKARA: A team of Turkish disaster response specialists is stationed at the Egyptian border, awaiting Israeli authorization to enter Gaza and help in search and recovery operations, a Turkish official told AFP on Friday.
The 81-member team from Turkiye’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) is equipped with specialized search-and-rescue tools, including life-detection devices and trained search dogs.
They “are currently waiting at the border on the Egyptian side,” the official said.
The group is prepared to locate and recover bodies trapped under rubble.
“It remains unclear when Israel will allow the Turkish team to enter Gaza,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Initially, Israel preferred to work with a Qatari team, but we are hopeful that our delegation will be granted access soon.”
A Hamas source told AFP the Turkish delegation is expected to enter Gaza by Sunday.
AFAD personnel are experienced in operating under extreme conditions, having responded to numerous natural disasters, including the devastating earthquake in southeastern Turkiye in February 2023 which claimed over 53,000 lives.
The Turkish official noted that the Turkish team’s mission includes locating both Palestinian and Israeli bodies, including hostages believed to be buried or hidden in collapsed structures.
However, the task is complicated because some Israeli hostages may have been disguised in local clothing to evade detection by Israeli drones during transfers.
“This situation is expected to complicate search operations and delay progress,” the official said, adding that Hamas is expected to provide location data related to hostages.
Concerns have been raised by some observers over the potential misuse of the Turkish team’s heavy equipment, with fears that it could be repurposed by Hamas to access underground tunnels.
Turkish experts await Israeli go ahead to help recover bodies in Gaza
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Turkish experts await Israeli go ahead to help recover bodies in Gaza
- A team of Turkish disaster response specialists is stationed at the Egyptian border, awaiting Israeli authorization to enter Gaza and help in search and recovery operations
US lawmakers press Israel to probe strike on reporters in Lebanon
- “The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said
- Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured
WASHINGTON: Several Democratic lawmakers called Thursday for the Israeli and US governments to fully investigate a deadly 2023 attack by the Israeli military on journalists in southern Lebanon.
The October 13, 2023 airstrike killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded six other reporters, including two from AFP — video journalist Dylan Collins and photographer Christina Assi, who lost her leg.
“We expect the Israeli government to conduct an investigation that meets the international standards and to hold accountable those people who did this,” Senator Peter Welch told a news conference, with Collins by his side.
The lawmaker from Collins’s home state of Vermont said he had been pushing for answers for two years, first from the administration of Democratic president Joe Biden and now from the Republican White House of Donald Trump.
The Israeli government has “stonewalled at every single turn,” Welch added.
“With the Israeli government, we have been extremely patient, and we have done everything we reasonably can to obtain answers and accountability,” he said.
“The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said, referring to the Israeli military, adding that it has told his office its investigation into the incident is closed.
Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured.
“But I’d also like them to put pressure on their greatest ally in the Middle East, the Israeli government, to bring the perpetrators to account,” he said, echoing the lawmakers who called the attack a “war crime.”
“We’re not letting it go,” Vermont congresswoman Becca Balint said. “It doesn’t matter how long they stonewall us.”
AFP conducted an independent investigation which concluded that two Israeli 120mm tank shells were fired from the Jordeikh area in Israel.
The findings were corroborated by other international probes, including investigations conducted by Reuters, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders.
Unlike Welch’s assertion Thursday that the Israeli probe was over, the IDF told AFP in October that “findings regarding the event have not yet been concluded.”
