1st ship carrying civilians evacuated from Lebanon arrives in Türkiye

By Sezgin Pancar and Ismihan Ozguven

MERSIN, Türkiye (AA) - The first amphibious warfare ship of the Turkish Naval Forces carrying civilians evacuated from Lebanon reached Türkiye's southern port of Mersin on Thursday.

The TCG Bayraktar left the port of Beirut, where the evacuation operation was carried out, and docked at Mersin’s port.

The 588 people on board will disembark after the completion of procedures.

The TCG Sancaktar, the other amphibious warship evacuating civilians from Lebanon, is expected to arrive in Türkiye's southern Mersin province in the coming hours with 378 people on board.

Those disembarking from the first ship were greeted by Deputy Foreign Minister Burhanettin Duran, Mersin Governor Ali Hamza Pehlivan and other officials.

At the welcome ceremony, Duran expressed great satisfaction for safely receiving the civilians after a long and exhausting journey.

"These two ships have also delivered nearly 300 tons of humanitarian aid to Beirut. In this context, we are continuing to record the evacuation requests received by our consulate's call center," he said.

"If needed, we are prepared to organize new evacuations based on future applications," he added.

Sources at the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that around 1,900 Turkish citizens had declared their intention to be evacuated from Lebanon.

They said that 966 people, including 878 citizens of Türkiye and 24 from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), were evacuated by the Turkish ships.

They added that news that foreign citizens were given priority in boarding the ships was absolutely not true.

The TCG Bayraktar and TCG Sancaktar delivered 300 tons of humanitarian aid materials collected at the initiative of the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) to the port of Beirut.

After unloading the cargo, the ships returned to Türkiye accompanied by two frigates and two patrol ships.

Israel has been mounting massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,323 people, injuring over 3,700 others and displacing more than 1.2 million people.

The aerial campaign was an escalation in yearlong cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 42,000 people, mostly women and children, since a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.

*Writing by Serdar Dincel and Alperen Aktas in Istanbul