Turkey considers establishing aerial bridge for Gaza aid

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said on Wednesday that his country is seeking Egyptian and Israeli agreement on establishing an aerial bridge for sending aid to Gaza.

Davutoğlu explained that the aerial bridge would be for transporting humanitarian supplies to the nearly two million Palestinians in Gaza who live under impossible conditions as a result of the Israeli assault and siege, as well as to transport the wounded from Gaza to Turkish hospitals.

“Yesterday I spoke with (Palestinian) President Abbas and we want to get the injured people, thousands of them. They need urgent medical therapy, and we have already allocated places in our hospitals for them,” Davutoglu told Reuters in an interview, adding that, “We are talking with both Egypt and Israel to have an air bridge to send humanitarian assistance.”

In the meantime, the minister said that his country had also increased aid to about 1.5 million refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan affected by ISIS violence near its borders. Turkey is a major player in the economic development of Iraqi Kurdistan.

In addition, Turkey hosts more than one million Syrian refugees who have fled their homes since the beginning of the conflict in Syria.