Türkiye ready to provide needed humanitarian support to Lebanon: Foreign minister

ANKARA

Türkiye is ready to provide Lebanon with needed humanitarian support, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has told Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

Fidan's expression of Ankara's readiness came in a phone call between Fidan and Mikati, diplomatic sources said on Sunday. Türkiye has already sent humanitarian aid shipments to Lebanon.

During the call, Fidan and Mikati discussed the latest developments and humanitarian situation in Lebanon.

Saying Israel's attacks on Lebanon will have negative repercussions at the global level, Fidan stressed that these attacks must end as soon as possible and that Israeli troops must withdraw from Lebanese territory.

In recent months, Israel has launched massive airstrikes on Lebanon against what it calls Hezbollah targets. Tel Aviv also started a ground invasion of southern Lebanon on Oct. 1.

The military campaign was an escalation in a year-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed nearly 42,000 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

*Writing by Serdar Dincel in Istanbul