ALGIERS, Algeria

The Algerian president has announced that his country is ready to build three hospitals in the Gaza Strip if the land border crossing between Egypt and the enclave is reopened.

Abdelmadjid Tebboune made his statement on Sunday while campaigning for the presidential election scheduled for Sept. 7, according to an Anadolu reporter.

In his presidential bid, Tebboune faces two other candidates: Abdelaali Hassani Cherif, the leader of the Movement for a Society of Peace (the largest Islamist party), and Youcef Aouchiche, the first secretary of the Socialist Forces Front (a leftist and the oldest opposition party).

“In case the border between Egypt and Gaza is opened, we will build three hospitals within 20 days,” Tebboune said, referring to field hospitals that the Algerian military is capable of constructing.

Previously, Tebboune had enquired about the military’s capacity to build such hospitals and the feasibility of sending them to Gaza under suitable conditions during the opening of the Algeria International Fair in June.

Addressing his supporters, Tebboune also expressed readiness to send hundreds of doctors to Gaza and assist in rebuilding what has been destroyed.

He condemned the current situation in Gaza as “not a war, but massacres perpetrated by the Zionist occupation,” asserting that the resolution of the Palestinian issue through the “extermination of Palestinians” is unacceptable.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack last year by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

The Israeli onslaught has since killed nearly 40,100 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 92,500, according to local health authorities.

More than 10 months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio