At least 100 aid trucks need to enter Gaza daily: Turkish Red Crescent chief

By Fatma Sevinc

The head of the Turkish Red Crescent on Tuesday said at least 100 aid trucks need to enter Gaza every day to supply its 2.3 million people with basic necessities.

Fatma Meric Yilmaz, addressing an event in the Turkish capital Ankara, said: "Everyone's heart is aching, and everyone agrees that aid must enter Gaza in some way."

Before the latest conflict, an average of 500 trucks entered the territory every day. But all stopped after the breakout of the fighting in Gaza on Oct. 7, leaving Gaza with severe shortage of food, water and medicines.

Yilmaz said they are doing their best in terms of aid distribution in Gaza in collaboration with the Egyptian Red Crescent, the Palestinian Red Crescent, and local personnel in the besieged enclave.

"Just collecting aid is not enough. To deliver aid there an adequate humanitarian aid corridor must be opened. We know that sending aid drop by drop is not sufficient," she said.

Yilmaz said the humanitarian organization had written to the permanent members of the UN Security Council, saying they have to ensure that humanitarian law, rule of law, and human dignity is respected in Gaza.

She said the Palestinian Red Crescent depot was also damaged in Israeli airstrikes. "The depot suffered serious damage and is not in a usable condition. There were some news reports suggesting that the depot belonged to Türkiye’s disaster management agency AFAD, or the Turkish Red Crescent. This is not correct; we, as the Turkish Red Crescent, assisted in the construction of that depot and handed it over to the Palestinian Red Crescent," Yilmaz said. "There were humanitarian aid supplies. The bombing of the warehouse means a disruption in aid distribution."

*Writing by Alperen Aktas in Istanbul