„If we do not stop the slaughter in Gaza, we, as humanity, will be complicit in it. We must all together increase the pressure on Israel to stop the massacre in Palestine," said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Hakan Fidan, who is on a two-day visit to Egypt, informed TRT Haber, quoted by BTA.
During the visit, the Turkish Foreign Minister and the delegation led by him inspected the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, through which humanitarian aid supplies to Gaza, including from Turkey, pass.
In a statement issued from the Rafah checkpoint yesterday, Hakan Fidan indicated that due to Israel's closure of Rafah, aid deliveries to Gaza by truck are severely insufficient.
„Representatives of Rafah informed us about the work of the station. Rafah is currently closed and the opposite side does not accept any trucks. According to the information they gave us, the trucks do not pass through this checkpoint, but are diverted to the Kerem Shalom checkpoint. But only about 25 trucks can pass through there daily. And this is extremely insufficient," Hakan Fidan said.
The Turkish foreign minister also visited the port in the Egyptian city of Al Arish, where he had the opportunity to see how aid arriving by ship, including from Turkey, is loaded onto trucks.
The Israeli military began its offensive against the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip in May, Reuters recalls. Since then, the border crossing there, which is vital for residents of the strip and allows the delivery of aid and the evacuation of patients, has been closed.