Turkish Red Crescent distributes over 3M hot meals to Palestinians in embattled Gaza

By Serkan Avci

MERSIN, Türkiye (AA) – The Turkish Red Crescent has distributed over three million hot meals to Palestinians, who have been under Israeli attacks for over one year.

“We have already distributed three million meals in total… It's an incredibly difficult operation. We're talking about a place without electricity, gas, or stoves,” the NGO’s President Fatma Meric Yilmaz told Anadolu.

Thanks to the soup kitchen set up by the Turkish Red Crescent, she said the NGO was distributing around 2,000 hot meals daily.

"However, under external pressure, we decided to increase the number of hot meals. Now we are providing 15,000 meals every day,” Yilmaz added.

Noting that they need wood fires to be lit, she said fires are kept burning for hours beneath large pots to cook.

She pledged to continue their humanitarian aid efforts in Gaza without interruption.

Underlining that the Turkish Red Crescent has been closely monitoring the situation in Gaza from the beginning, she said Türkiye has provided the most aid to Gaza, contributing over 65,000 tons of aid.

Despite this, Yilmaz expressed that the aid is not enough to ease the Palestinians' concerns.

"Since May, after the closure of the Rafah Border Crossing, nearly 400 trucks have been waiting outside for about five months. We tried to find alternative routes,” she said.

Yilmaz said the Jordanian route was one of their options. “Through the Jordan Red Crescent, there is a limited amount of aid entering through Israel's Kerem Abu Salem Border Crossing. Although it is limited, we are still trying to bring in some supplies by purchasing from Jordan.”

Israel has continued its devastating offensive against Gaza since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. The onslaught has killed more than 43,700 people and rendered the enclave almost uninhabitable.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.