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ANKARA: A team of Turkish disaster response specialists is stationed at the Egyptian border, awaiting Israeli authorization to enter Gaza and help in search and recovery operations, a Turkish official told AFP on Friday.
The 81-member team from Turkiye’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) is equipped with specialized 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 Turkiye in February 2023 which claimed over 53,000 lives.
The Turkish official noted that the Turkish 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.

BEIRUT: A Lebanese judge on Friday ordered the release of the son of Libya’s late leader Muammar Qaddafi on condition that he pay $11 million bail.
Hannibal Qaddafi has been imprisoned in Lebanon for a decade without being charged.
The expected release comes after his lawyers have said that he had been ill in his cell at police headquarters in Beirut. Libya in 2023 formally requested his release, citing his deteriorating health after he went on hunger strike to protest his detention without trial.
On Friday, judicial officials said he was taken to the Justice Palace in Beirut, where Judge Zaher Hamadeh questioned him and later ordered his release once the money is paid. Another condition for his release, however, is that he be banned from traveling outside Lebanon for two months.
After the session was over, Qaddafi was taken back to the cell.
Judicial officials in Beirut said Qaddafi’s defense team has filed a case against the Lebanese state in Geneva over holding him without trial, adding that the case is expected to be discussed in Switzerland next month.
One of Qaddafi’s lawyers, Charbel Milad Al-Khoury, told The Associated Press that Qaddafi does not have the money and does not have access to accounts in order to pay the bail. Al-Khoury added that Hannibal Qaddafi’s defense team plan to lodge an appeal on Monday over the $11 million bail and ask that it be abolished.
“This decision is almost impossible to be met,” Al-Khoury said about the bail. “Hannibal has been held for 10 years and it is not logical to release him for $11 million bail.”
Qaddafi has been detained in Lebanon since 2015 after he was abducted by Lebanese militants demanding information on the whereabouts of a prominent Lebanese Shiite cleric. Lebanese police later announced it had picked up Qaddafi from the city of Baalbek, in northeastern Lebanon, where he was being held. He has since been held in a Beirut jail.
Qaddafi had been living in exile in Syria with his Lebanese wife, Aline Skaf, and children until he was abducted and brought to Lebanon.
He has faced questioning over the past years over the 1978 disappearance of Shiite cleric, Moussa Al-Sadr, during a visit to Libya.
The case has been a long-standing sore point in Lebanon. The cleric’s family believes he may still be alive in a Libyan prison, though most Lebanese presume he is dead. He would be 96 years old.
Al-Sadr was the founder of a Shiite political and military group that took part in the long Lebanese civil war that began in 1975, largely pitting Muslims against Christians.
Asked on Friday, about Al-Sadr, Qaddafi responded “I Don’t know” and “I don’t remember,” according to four judicial officials who attended the session. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Muammar Qaddafi was killed by opposition fighters during Libya’s 2011 uprising-turned-civil war, ending his four-decade rule of the North African country.
Hannibal Qaddafi, who was born nearly three years before Al-Sadr disappeared, fled to Algeria after his father was toppled and Tripoli fell to opposition fighters, along with his mother and several other relatives. He later moved to Syria where he was given political asylum and stayed there until he was abducted.
Muammar Qaddafi had eight children from two marriages. Most of them had significant roles in his government. His son Muatassim was killed at the same time as Qaddafi Sr. was captured and slain. Two other sons, Seif Al-Arab and Khamis, were killed in the uprising.
Seif Al-Islam, the one-time heir apparent to his father, has been in Libya since his release from detention there in 2017. Qaddafi’s son Mohammed and daughter Aisha live in Oman. Al-Saadi, a former soccer player, was released from prison in Libya in 2021 after being jailed following repatriation from Niger in 2014, and is believed to be living in Turkiye.