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By Necva Tastan
ISTANBUL (AA) - The first international medical mission from the UK arrived in Istanbul, Türkiye late Friday as part of humanitarian aid efforts for the Gaza Strip.
The aid convoy, called Muslims In Need, is made up of eight ambulances and 36 volunteers, all of Pakistani origin. The volunteers come from diverse professions, including restaurateurs, business owners, and taxi drivers.
They started their four-day journey from London with 50 ambulances, but only 10 were allowed to continue into France, while one broke down along the road. They went through a dozen countries.
Other ambulances are expected to follow in the days to come.
“The idea is that getting through the borders is getting difficult so we want to do a small amount at first,” Suliman Mujadad, part of the volunteer group, told Anadolu. “For many of us, this is the first time, but for the organizers, they’ve been doing this for many years now.”
“We just have a regular life, we left behind our families, our children,” he added.
On the situation in Gaza, he said it “breaks everybody's heart and I think before it was just (seen as) for Muslims, but now I think the whole world can see that kids are dying, everything in there is in the worst situation possible.”
“We’re doing the smallest thing ever to try to help them,” he added.
The convoy is expected to reach Egypt by ship via Istanbul and is also set to buy medical supplies in Egypt.
“We raised funds of over $300,000, which is going to go towards contributions for medical food, and water,” Sufyaan Mia, an organizer of the convoy, told Anadolu.
“The basic necessities of life were taken away from our brothers and sisters,” he added. “We want to show them, the ummah (Muslim community), that we’re with them,” he said.
-'We stand by Gaza'
Yasin Turkaslan, head of Turkish-based aid group the Verenel Association, based in the capital Ankara, said they had met the 10 ambulances at the border from Bulgaria.
"We stand by our Gazan brothers and sisters, as we always have," he said, adding that they are set to send the ambulances to Gaza via ship from the metropolis of Istanbul.
"These ambulances will provide some relief to the troubles and wounds of our brothers and sisters there," he said.
The team assembled after a call for ambulances from the Verenel Association and Global Family Aid (Aile Yardimlasma Dernegi), another Turkish-based aid group.
The ambulances will be carried across the border and delivered to hospitals in Palestine.
Israel launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7.
The Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has soared to 14,854, the government’s media office in the blockaded enclave said Thursday.
The victims include 6,150 children and over 4,000 women, while more than 36,000 people have been injured, it said.
Around 7,000 people remain unaccounted for, including more than 4,700 children, it added.
The official Israeli death toll stands at 1,200.