Turkey will seek to rebuild Gaza if ceasefire achieved – Erdogan

Turkey will make efforts to rebuild damaged infrastructure, hospitals and schools in Gaza if a ceasefire is achieved there, Turkish media on Saturday reported President Tayyip Erdogan as saying.

“If a ceasefire is reached, we will do whatever is necessary to compensate for the destruction caused by Israel,” Erdogan told reporters on his plane returning from a trip to Berlin, where he held talks with German leaders.

“We will make efforts to rebuild the damaged infrastructure in Gaza and rebuild the destroyed schools, hospitals, water and energy facilities,” he was cited as saying by broadcaster A Haber on its website.

Earlier this week Erdogan called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to announce whether Israel had nuclear weapons and he returned to the issue in his comments to reporters, calling for nuclear weapons inspections there.

“As Turkey, we are making this call. Israel’s nuclear weapons must be inspected beyond doubt before it is too late. We will follow up on this,” he said.

Erdogan also said the families of Israelis held hostage by the militant group Hamas had sent him a letter requesting that he intervened to secure their release, and he said Turkey’s intelligence agency had been activated to look into the issue.