GAZA CITY
The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) on Monday distributed food packages to Palestinian families affected by an ongoing Israeli air offensive against the Gaza Strip that has left 175 Palestinians dead over the past week.
"TIKA is due to distribute 15,000 food parcels to as many Palestinian families through the Palestinian Awqaf [Religious Endowments] Ministry," Mohamed Mortagi, TIKA's Gaza representative, told Anadolu Agency.
The priority, he said, would be given to affected families, especially orphaned children and those who had lost their homes as a result of the Israeli onslaught.
The aid agency has also purchased drugs and medical equipment for distribution to Gaza hospitals and health facilities, Mortagi added.
It has also provided four electricity generators to residents of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip to allow them to pump water from wells into their homes.
The latest assistance efforts, he said, come following instructions from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for urgent aid transfers to Gaza.
"The Turkish government is planning to provide more assistance to the enclave," said Mortagi.
Erdogan has condemned Israel's week-long air campaign against the Gaza Strip, which has so far left at least 175 Palestinians – mostly civilians – dead.
Israeli warplanes have pounded the Gaza Strip over the past week as part of a military offensive – dubbed "Operation Protective Edge" – with the stated aim of ending rocket fire from the embattled coastal enclave.
Gaza-based resistance factions, meanwhile, have continued to fire short-range rockets into Israel – which have yet to result in any fatalities – in response to the unrelenting airstrikes.
Established in 1992, Turkey's government-run TIKA aid agency is responsible for implementing Turkey's developmental cooperation policies overseas.
By Yasser al-Banna
www.aa.com.tr/en
