Turkey-Syria quake updates: No aid in NW Syria yet, say rescuers

The search for survivors of the earthquake that toppled thousands of buildings in Turkey and Syria has reached a critical point, with experts warning the realistic window to find survivors in the subfreezing temperatures was quickly closing.

The damage from Monday’s quake was so extensive and spread so widely that hope was running out despite teams from two dozen countries helping locals sift through the rubble.

Rescuers formed human chains as they tried to dig through collapsed buildings, urging quiet every so often in the hopes of hearing stifled pleas for help.

The death toll from a massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria climbed above 12,000, as rescuers raced to save survivors trapped under debris in freezing weather.

Officials and medics said 9,057 people had died in Turkey and 2,992 in Syria from Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor, bringing the total to 12,049.

The death toll in northwest Syria has risen to at least 1,730, the Syrian Civil Defence said in a post on Twitter, adding that more than 2,850 others were injured.

“The number is likely to rise significantly due to the presence of hundreds of families under the rubble of destroyed buildings,” said the rescue group, also known as the White Helmets.

“Our teams continue rescue operations amid difficult circumstances,” it added.

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the loss of life in the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria is “truly staggering, shocking.”

The US has deployed more than 150 search and rescue personnel to Turkey, Blinken said, adding that Washington will have more to say in the days ahead about how the US will continue to support the Turkish and Syrian people as they recover from the devastation, which has killed more than 11,700 people.

“With regards to Syria, I’m not aware of any contacts between the United States government and the Syrian government in recent days since the earthquake,” Blinken said, explaining that the US is trying to make sure assistance gets to the right people by working with its NGO partners.

Turkey is working on opening two more border gates with Syria to enable the flow of humanitarian aid to its earthquake-hit neighbour, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says.

The Bab al-Hawa border gate is the only one open for humanitarian aid under United Nations Security Council authorisation, but Cavusoglu told reporters that damage to the Syrian road leading away from the border crossing is hampering the quake response.

“There are some difficulties in terms of Turkey’s and the international community’s aid [reaching Syria],” the foreign minister said. “For this reason, efforts are being made to open two more border gates.”

Adana has not been hit nearly as hard as other cities in the region, but buildings have fallen and at least 146 people in the Turkish city have died as a result of Monday’s earthquakes.

While taking a minibus to the site of a collapsed apartment, the driver stopped by a previously vacant lot full of tents to drop off a small packet of blankets.

Minutes ahead, two police officers were on guard near a crumpled building that could not be accessed by rescue teams due to the risk of the adjacent building toppling.

Reporting by Paul Osterlund in Adana.

The EU plans to host a donors conference in March to mobilise international aid for Syria and Turkey to deal with the devastating effect of this week’s earthquake, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has said.

“We are now racing against the clock to save lives together. Soon we will provide relief aid, together. Turkiye and Syria can count on the EU,” von der Leyen wrote on Twitter.

The EU said the conference would be held early next month in Brussels in coordination with Turkish authorities “to mobilise funds from the international community in support for the people” of both countries.

“No one should be left alone when a tragedy like this hits a people,” von der Leyen said in a statement.

A leading United Nations official has called for the facilitation of aid access to rebel-held areas in Syria’s northwest, warning that relief stocks will soon be depleted.

Rebel-held areas near Turkey’s border cannot receive aid from government-held parts of Syria without Damascus’s authorisation.

“Put politics aside and let us do our humanitarian work,” the UN’s resident Syria coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih said, warning, “We can’t afford to wait and negotiate. By the time we negotiate, it’s done, it’s finished.”

British humanitarian charities are to launch a joint appeal to raise funds for people affected by the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.

The Disasters Emergency Committee is co-ordinating a rapid response by 14 charities, including the British Red Cross, Oxfam and Save the Children.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the government would match any donations made by the public.

“When disasters like these terrible earthquakes strike, we know the British people want to help,” he said.

Twelve years ago, Abdel-Karim Abu Jalhoum fled war and poverty in the Gaza Strip for safety in Turkey.

On Monday, the earthquakes that devastated parts of Turkey and Syria killed him and his entire family.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Abu Jalhoum; his wife, Fatima; and their four children were among 70 Palestinians who had been found dead.

“My brother went to Turkey to seek a better life away from wars and blockades here in Gaza,” said Abu Jalhoum’s brother Ramzy, 43, as relatives and neighbours trickled into the family’s house in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip to pay their respects.

“We lost the family. An entire family was wiped off the civil registration record,” he said.

Malek Ibrahim made it out of his home after earthquakes hit Syria and thought he could breathe a sigh of relief. But 30 relatives were still unaccounted for elsewhere.

For the past two days, Ibrahim has been doggedly tearing at the rubble with his hands as he searches for family members who were buried when Monday’s deadly earthquakes struck both Syria and Turkey.

So far, he has managed to retrieve 10 bodies with help from residents and rescue workers in Besnaya, a village in northwestern Syria on the Turkish border.

His uncle, his cousin and their families were all trapped under debris.

“The whole family is gone. It’s complete genocide,” said the 40-year-old covered in dirt.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the death toll in the country from Monday’s earthquakes has reached at least 9,057 as rescue workers continue to search for victims buried under mountains of rubble.

At least another 2,662 people have been killed in Syria, according to tallies by the government in Damascus and rescue groups in rebel-held regions.

The latest figures bring the total death toll to 11,719.

Jacques Larroude, Turkey emergency response coordinator for CARE, a humanitarian organisation, says the situation more than two days after the disaster is still “extremely difficult”.

“Power is still erratic, phone communication is still sketchy and many people are staying in their cars overnight,” he told Al Jazeera from the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep.

Larroude said the most urgent needs were for winter items to keep people warm.

“The scale is enormous and the very cold temperatures we are experiencing right now is making it even more difficult for people.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned criticism of the government’s response to the earthquakes that have killed more than 11,000 people in southern Turkey and northwestern Syria.

“This is a time for unity, solidarity,” he told reporters on his arrival in the southern province of Hatay. “In a period like this, I cannot stomach people conducting negative campaigns for political interests.”

He said it was not possible to be prepared for such a disaster but his government would accelerate rubble removal and housing construction.

The death toll in Turkey had risen to 9,057, he said.

The World Health Organisation is flying medical personnel and supplies to Turkey and Syria after Monday’s devastating earthquakes.

It will send a high-level delegation to coordinate its response as well as three flights with medical supplies, one of which is already on its way to Istanbul, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a media briefing.

“The health needs are tremendous,” said Dr Iman Shankiti, the WHO representative for Syria.

Schools sheltering displaced families in northern Syria have resorted to burning their furniture to keep people warm, says Angela Kearney, the UNICEF representative in Syria.

“In Aleppo, the number of people who have been displaced is going up by the hour,” she told Al Jazeera after a visit to the northwestern city.

“Right now it’s freezing cold, so what they need is blankets and fuel,” Kearney said from the Mediterranean port city of Latakia.

“We heard stories yesterday where some of the schools in Aleppo had started burning the school furniture because it’s so freezing,” she said, adding that medical care, food and psychological support are also desperately needed.

Britain says it will provide more support, including tents and blankets, to help earthquake survivors in freezing conditions in Turkey and Syria.

“Our priority is to ensure life-saving assistance is given to those most in need, coordinated with the Turkish government, UN and international partners,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in the statement.

The government said the equipment would meet the needs of up to 15,000 people.

The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has sparked outrage on social media after it published a cartoon appearing to make light of the earthquakes that killed thousands of people in Turkey and Syria.

The drawing by artist Pierrick Juin showed teetering buildings and heaps of rubble with the caption: “No need to send tanks.”

Social media users said the cartoon mocked the disaster, which has impacted millions of people across two countries. Some called the drawing “disgusting”, “shameful”, “revolting” and akin to “hate speech”.

Read more here.

Syrian activists at the Bab al-Hawa crossing on the border with Turkey say only bodies are coming through so far as they wait for desperately needed aid.

“There are four border crossings between Turkey and Syria, and convoys are coming through,” independent Syrian activist Abdulkafi Alhamdo told Al Jazeera from Bab al-Hawa. “But they [the convoys] are only carrying dead bodies of Syrian [quake] victims in Turkey back to Syria.”

The Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, which is leading efforts to rescue people buried under the rubble in rebel-held areas of earthquake-hit Syria, says it has not received any aid so far.

“No aid has entered [north Syria] through any of the corridors,” Abdul Razzak Kentar, programmes manager at the Syrian Civil Defence, told Al Jazeera.

First responders from the group, which was formed a decade ago to save the lives of civilians during Syria’s war, sprang into action early on Monday when the magnitude 7.8 quake rocked Turkey and Syria.

“Only an Egyptian technical team of 20 people, including doctors, without equipment, has entered through the Bab al-Hawa crossing” from Turkey, Kentar said.

“All the crossings, according to official statements, have been opened – Bab al-Hawa, Jarablus and Bab al-Salamah – but as for the civil defence, we have not received any international or non-international assistance so far,” he said. “We are still working with our reserves and aid from local organisations operating in the rebel-held north.”