Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has authorized the deployment of 81 search and rescue technicians to Gaza following the peace agreement reached at the leaders' summit in Egypt, with teams from eight provinces preparing for a month-long humanitarian mission that will include aid coordination and operations in destroyed areas.
The Erzurum contingent includes 10 technicians and three vehicles dispatched for the month-long Gaza operation. Teams traveling by road to Ankara received briefings about their Gaza assignments and farewells from colleagues at the AFAD (Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency) Erzurum Campus before departure.
Erzurum AFAD Director Selahattin Karslı, who bid farewell to the Gaza-bound team, said, "With the guidance of our esteemed President, AFAD is heading to the region to heal the wounds of our Gazan brothers."
The Erzurum contingent will travel to Ankara for consolidation with officials from other provinces before the combined group proceeds to Egypt. The 81-member AFAD team will enter Gaza from Egypt to coordinate humanitarian aid and execute search and rescue operations in rubble zones, marking the first time in over a century that Turkish security personnel have entered Gaza.
