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
Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon kills 13 people, Lebanese ministry says
- Hamas condemned the attack in a statement saying the strike hit a sports playground and denying that it was a training compound
- Lebanon’s Health Ministry has reported more than 270 people killed and around 850 wounded by Israeli military actions since the ceasefire
SIDON, Lebanon: An Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed 13 people and wounded several others, state media and government officials said. It was the deadliest strike on Lebanon since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war a year ago.
The drone strike hit a car in the parking lot of a mosque in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, the state-run National News Agency said. The Lebanese Health Ministry said 13 people were killed and several others wounded in the airstrike, without giving further details.
Hamas fighters in the area prevented journalists from reaching the scene, as ambulances rushed to evacuate the wounded and the dead.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas training compound that was being used to prepare an attack against Israel and its army. It added that the Israeli army would continue to act against Hamas wherever the group operates.
Hamas condemned the attack in a statement saying the strike hit a sports playground and denying that it was a training compound.
Over the past two years, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have killed scores of officials from the militant Hezbollah group as well as Palestinian factions such as Hamas.
Saleh Arouri, the deputy political head of Hamas and a founder of the group’s military wing, was killed in a drone strike on a southern suburb of Beirut on Jan. 2, 2024. Several other Hamas officials have been killed in strikes since then.
Hamas led the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people. That sparked Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
A day after the Israel-Hamas war started, Hezbollah began firing rockets toward Israeli posts along the border. Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the two sides became locked in an escalating conflict that became a full-blown war in late September 2024.
That war, the most recent of several conflicts involving Hezbollah over the past four decades, killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, and caused an estimated $11 billion worth of destruction, according to the World Bank. In Israel, 127 people died, including 80 soldiers.
The war ended in late November 2024 with a US-brokered ceasefire. Since then, Israel has carried out scores of airstrikes in Lebanon, saying that Hezbollah is trying to rebuild its capabilities.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry has reported more than 270 people killed and around 850 wounded by Israeli military actions since the ceasefire.
