Nearly thirty cancer patients who were able to leave the Gaza Strip via Egypt arrived in Turkey on Wednesday night for treatment, the official Turkish Anadolu news agency reported.

The two planes carrying the cancer patients landed at Ankara airport shortly after 00:30 (local time; at 23:30 yesterday Greek time).

According to Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, “forty people, twenty-seven patients and thirteen companions”, were transferred to the Turkish capital.

These are cancer patients who crossed into Egypt through the border post in Rafah, he clarified.

Mr Koja was in Egypt yesterday for talks on the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. The patients were expected to be transferred to Turkey thanks to “coordinated actions by Turkey, Egypt and Israel,” he explained.

Rafah, controlled by the Egyptian authorities, is now practically the only access to the Gaza Strip, which has been under a total siege for forty days and has been under heavy shelling by the Israeli army. More than 11,500 people have been killed so far in the Palestinian enclave, according to the latest tally from the Hamas government.

The trigger for the war was the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli territory with around 1,200 dead, mostly civilians, the deadliest since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Hamas fighters also took around 240 hostages.

Ankara, which has sent dozens of aircraft and 66 tons of aid, is also awaiting a green light from Egypt to set up field hospitals in Rafah.

“I hope that in the near future – we are making efforts for this purpose – we will be able to put into operation a hospital in Gaza, in a zone near the Rafah gate,” said the Turkish minister.

Turkey, which traditionally supports the Palestinian cause, strongly condemns the shelling of the Gaza Strip. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Israel a “terrorist state” on Wednesday.