A team of Turkish disaster response specialists is stationed at the Egyptian border, awaiting Israeli authorisation to enter Gaza and help in search and recovery operations, a Turkish official told AFP on Friday.
The 81-member team from Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) is equipped with specialised search-and-rescue tools, including life-detection devices and trained search dogs.
They “are currently waiting at the border on the Egyptian side,” the official said.
The group is prepared to locate and recover bodies trapped under rubble.
“It remains unclear when Israel will allow the Turkish team to enter Gaza,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Initially, Israel preferred to work with a Qatari team, but we are hopeful that our delegation will be granted access soon.”
A Hamas source told AFP the Turkish delegation is expected to enter Gaza by Sunday.
AFAD personnel are experienced in operating under extreme conditions, having responded to numerous natural disasters, including the devastating earthquake in southeastern Turkey in February 2023 which claimed over 53,000 lives.
The Turkish official noted that the team’s mission includes locating both Palestinian and Israeli bodies, including hostages believed to be buried or hidden in collapsed structures.
However, the task is complicated because some Israeli hostages may have been disguised in local clothing to evade detection by Israeli drones during transfers.
“This situation is expected to complicate search operations and delay progress,” the official said, adding that Hamas is expected to provide location data related to hostages.
Concerns have been raised by some observers over the potential misuse of the Turkish team’s heavy equipment, with fears that it could be repurposed by Hamas to access underground tunnels.
-‘Buffer zone’-
In Ankara, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the possibility that Israel may use Hamas’s limited ability to recover bodies from beneath the rubble as an excuse to resume military operations led to concerns.
“From time to time we hear certain statements from Israel. That is worrying for us. Will Israel use, as an excuse, Hamas’s particular inability to recover bodies trapped under the rubble to break the ceasefire again?” he told a press conference with his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul.
While Hamas is blacklisted by Washington, Brussels and Israel as a terrorist organisation, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has always referred to it as “a liberation movement”. He nurtures close ties with it and frequently hosts its leaders.
Turkey was closely involved in the negotiations for Gaza ceasefire and sent a team led by spy chief Ibrahim Kalin to the talks in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh.
Ankara is now planning to take part in a task force in the Palestinian territory to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire.
“For Gaza right now, a key question is how a stability force could be formed,” Fidan said.
“We are closely following these discussions: which countries can contribute, and under what rules and agreements would this proceed?” he added.
“But at the end of the day our goal is to create a buffer zone between Israel and the Palestinians so that neither side can harm the other.”
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© Agence France-Presse
