Turkey aids Palestine by giving $118 million

JERUSALEM / GAZA - Anatolia News Agency

A Palestinian woman sits outside her home in Shati in Gaza City last week. AFP photo

The Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency’s (TİKA) assistance to Palestine has reached $118 million. The agency has recently opened 10 potable water stations and enabled 340 schools in Gaza to have potable water. This project cost $1.2 million.

“We opened our office in Palestine in Ramallah in 2005 and have supported the Palestinian people with hundreds of projects since then,” TIKA coordinator Kursat Mahmat told an Anatolia news agency
correspondent.
TIKA’s assistance includes supplying potable water, school and hospital construction projects and the renovation of reliefs in the al-Masjid al-Aqsa Mosque.

“Efforts are under way to construct a 150-bed Gaza teaching hospital, which will cost about $35 million,” Mahmat said.

Besides TIKA, the Turkish Red Crescent and many nongovernmental organizations are operating in Palestine. Turkey’s assistance to Palestine is forecast to be around $1 billion.