Türkiye's ex-disaster chief put in charge of Gaza aid
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a vocal critic of Israel's genocidal military campaign in Gaza, joined long-term mediators Qatar and Egypt this week in signing off on U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to end the war.
Mehmet Güllüoğlu, former head of Türkiye's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), has been appointed as coordinator for humanitarian aid to the Palestinians and traveled to the region on Wednesday, Reuters reported, citing a Foreign Ministry source.
"Türkiye is mobilizing all its resources to rapidly deliver aid to Gaza, establish temporary housing areas, and for Gaza's reconstruction," the source said.
Güllüoğlu, also a former ambassador, will conduct inspections to identify the necessary aid materials in Gaza and prioritize them, coordinate with U.N. agencies, ensure the unhindered delivery of aid from Türkiye, consult with Egyptian and Jordanian officials on deliveries, work on evacuating the wounded and ramping up Türkiye's medical support to Gaza, the source said.
The fragile cease-fire deal ended two years of Israeli bombardments that killed more than 67,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and reduced huge swathes of Gaza to a wasteland.
More than 90% of the enclave's population of more than 2 million people is displaced. The medical system is shattered. Homes and buildings are flattened. Croplands are razed. Hunger is pervasive.
Ankara has said it will take part in an international task force to monitor the implementation of the cease-fire accord, though details have yet to be finalized. The Turkish Defense Ministry has said its armed forces stand ready to take part in the task force in a military or civilian capacity as needed.
Meanwhile, Türkiye has deployed dozens of disaster relief experts to search for the remains of hostages still missing in Gaza.
Under the cease-fire agreement, Palestinian resistance group Hamas returned the last 20 surviving hostages to Israel, and said it had handed back all the bodies of deceased captives that it could access.
The remains of 19 hostages are still unaccounted for, with Hamas saying it would need specialist recovery equipment to retrieve them from the ruins of Gaza.
A Turkish Defense Ministry source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday that "there is already a team of 81 AFAD staff there," indicating that "one team will be in charge of seeking and finding the bodies."
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