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09-04-2024
JERUSALEM/ ISTANBUL: Israel has denied Turkey’s request to join air drops of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, and Ankara will take new measures against Israel in response, its Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Monday.
Turkey, which has denounced Israel for its offensive in the densely populated Gaza Strip and called for an immediate ceasefire, has sent tens of thousands of tons of humanitarian aid there since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7.
The United States started dropping deliveries of aid into Gaza by air last month, with the Netherlands, France, Spain and others contributing.
“We also conveyed our request to be included in this humanitarian aid operation with (Turkish) air forces’ cargo planes. Today we learnt that our request was rejected by Israel, despite a positive approach by the Jordanian authorities,” Fidan said in a statement to the media.
Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“There is no excuse for Israel to block our attempt to drop aid to starving Gazans,” Fidan said, adding that Turkey has decided to take a “series of new measures” against Israel.
“These measures, approved by our president, will be implemented step by step, without delay,” Fidan said, without elaborating.
“The measures to be announced by our relevant institutions will continue until Israel declares a ceasefire and allows humanitarian aid to reach Gaza without interruption,” he said.
Spanish military planes air dropped 26 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip on Wednesday and Madrid called on Israel to open land border crossings to prevent a famine, the Foreign Ministry said.
The operation, carried out in coordination with Jordan and co-financed by the European Union, dropped more than 11,000 food rations to alleviate the “catastrophic levels of food insecurity” faced by up to 1.1 million people in Gaza, the ministry said in a statement.
“Spain insists on the opening of the land crossings as an indispensable measure to avoid a famine situation,” it added.
Other Western countries, including the United States, France and Germany, have also resorted to air drops to deliver aid to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza after nearly six months of war between Israeli forces and Hamas militants.
Aid agencies say deliveries into Gaza, much of which has been laid to waste by Israeli bombardments, have been held up by bureaucratic obstacles and insecurity since the start of the war on Oct. 7, 2023.
Last week, a UN-backed report said a famine was imminent and likely to occur by May in northern Gaza and could spread across the enclave by July.
The Spanish foreign ministry also reaffirmed its commitment to supporting UNRWA, the United Nations humanitarian agency for Palestinians, and to its continued existence. (Int’l News Desk)
