Israel lets wounded Palestinians fly from Ben-Gurion to Turkey for medical aid

Foreign Ministry issues statement that a second group of 17 Palestinians wounded in the recent fighting will be flown to Turkey, each patient to be accompanied by family member.

By HERB KEINON
Mission to evacuate Gaza wounded to Turkey (photo credit: MAGEN DAVID ADOM)
Mission to evacuate Gaza wounded to Turkey
(photo credit: MAGEN DAVID ADOM)
Israel on Wednesday permitted 17 wounded Gazans to fly for medical help from Ben-Gurion Airport, which Hamas has targeted, to Turkey, whose leader has likened Israel to the Nazis.
The Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that this second group of 17 Palestinians wounded in the recent fighting will be flown to Turkey for medical treatment. Each patient will be accompanied by one family member.
A first group of 19 Gazans and their accompanying relatives was flown to Turkey for medical aid last Thursday with the approval and coordination of the Foreign Ministry and COGAT (the Office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories).
One of those patients died in a Turkish hospital, and his body was scheduled to be returned to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
Following the announcement last week of a 72-hour cease-fire, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry which – along with its newly elected president Recep Tayyip Erdogan – has been vitriolic in its criticism of Israel, approached Jerusalem with a request to transfer wounded Palestinians from Gaza for treatment in Turkey.
The request was approved, and the patients – who were seen by Turkish doctors in Gaza’s hospitals and deemed able to travel – were transferred via Magen David ambulances from the Gaza border to Ben-Gurion Airport.