February 10, 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake news

Our live coverage of the quake and rescue efforts in Turkey and Syria has moved here.

The number of people killed following Monday’s devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria has reached at least 23,831, according to authorities.

The death toll in Turkey rose to 20,318, with 80,052 reported injuries, according to the country’s disaster agency. 

In Syria, the total number of those killed stands at 3,513, including 2,166 deaths in rebel-held areas in the northwest of the country, according to volunteer organization Syria Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets.

Syrian state media also reported 1,347 deaths in government-controlled parts of Syria.

Three brothers were rescued from the wreckage of a five-story apartment building 120 hours after the earthquake struck, Turkish state media TRT reported Friday.  

The network showed footage of the third brother being rescued. He was wrapped in a thermal cover and was sent to the hospital for further medical evaluation, it said. 

According to TRT, the rescue team worked for nine hours at the location in Antakya – the main city of hard-hit Hatay province – digging down to the second floor. The team rescued the first brother at the 117th hour and the second one at the 119th.

Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross called for more access to all parts of northern Syria following the deadly earthquake.

“What is most important now is that we gain access to all parts of northern Syria to help people who need our urgent support,” Spoljaric said in a statement Friday. “Impartial humanitarian assistance should never be hindered, nor politicized.”

Some background: The delivery of urgent supplies to quake-hit rebel-held areas in northern and northwestern Syria has been complicated by a long-running civil war between opposition groups and the Syrian government.

Earlier Friday, CNN reported that the government approved sending aid into rebel territory in the northwest area, but no timeline was provided.

The volunteer organization Syria Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, announced the end of its search and rescue operations for survivors in rebel-controlled areas in the north and northwest following the earthquakes that hit the country and Turkey on Monday.

The group said it believes no one trapped under the rubble is still alive after 108 hours of searching.

However, it is now searching for the bodies of those under collapsed buildings.

“Since the beginning of the earthquake on Monday at 4.17am local time until the announcement of the end of the search and rescue operations, 2,166 deaths were registered and more than 2,950 injured in all the areas hit by the earthquake in north and northwestern Syria,” the White Helmets said in a statement released Friday.
“Our teams have conducted 108 hours of work in more than 40 cities, towns and villages in northwestern Syria, in which about 479 residential buildings were completely destroyed, and more than 1,481 buildings were partially destroyed,” the statement added.

According to the statement, many women and children were among the dead people in the most affected areas, including in the towns of Jindires and Haram in north Syria.

A 16-year-old boy was pulled alive from the rubble of a destroyed building in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras 119 hours after the devastating earthquake hit the country and Syria.

In dramatic scenes shown live on CNN affiliate, CNN Turk, Kamil Can was brought to the surface with a smile on his face. He appeared to be in OK condition. 

Rescuers said they had been prompted to search the location after hearing his voice come from below the wreckage.

Kamil was taken away on a stretcher, looking alert, to waiting relatives who could be seen kissing him with joy.

Monday’s deadly earthquake has left millions of people homeless in Turkey and Syria in the middle of winter, according to aid organizations, and survivors are finding refuge in temporary shelters amid freezing temperatures.

In Syria alone, approximately 5.37 million people will need shelter assistance, according to a preliminary estimate from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,

There are still glimmers of hope for survivors under the rubble. On the fifth day since the earthquake, teams were able to rescue a mother and her two daughters, as well as another family of six in Turkey. But the pace of rescues has slowed.

Meanwhile, families are grieving as they begin to bury their loved ones. Salma Salazar, who lost members of her family, told CNN her family is “very heartbroken.”

Here’s what you need to know:

A record-breaking quake: Monday’s disaster was the deadliest earthquake to strike Turkey in more than 80 years. The quake has left more than 23,000 people dead, which is more than those killed in Japan’s Fukushima disaster of 2011.

Government intervention: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that the country’s government will pay citizens’ rent for one year if they do not wish to stay in tents. He also vowed penalties for “abusers” involved in crime during his declared state of emergency. He’s reported attacks on businesses and robberies in regions impacted by the earthquake. Turkish Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdag said Friday that judicial investigations have started for builders in regions affected by the quake, according to Turkey’s state media Anadolu. 

Aid efforts: Erdogan said more than 141,000 rescue personnel are working on the ground in 10 earthquake-struck provinces in Turkey. And according to the White House, the US will be “ramping up” its assistance to Turkey and Syria.

But in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad criticized Western countries Friday for having “no regard for the human condition.” His comment is in line with statements heard from government officials and Syria’s state-run media, who have pinned the lack of humanitarian aid and hindered rescue equipment on US and EU sanctions. On Friday the Syrian government approved sending aid into rebel-held territory in the northwest of the country, but the aid group International Organization for Migration tells CNN they haven’t received any specifics from officials on the announcement.

While Turkey is no stranger to strong earthquakes, Monday’s disaster is the deadliest to strike the country in more than 80 years.

Here’s what we know:

Monday’s deadly earthquakes left thousands of people in Turkey and Syria homeless in the middle of winter. They are now finding refuge in temporary shelters.

Here’s a look:

Click here for more photos from the region devastated by the earthquake.

More than 5 million people in Syria may have been left homeless following the earthquake that struck the country and Turkey on Monday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Friday.

“UNHCR is focusing very much on shelter and relief items, ensuring that collective centers that displaced have gone to have adequate facilities, as well as tents, plastic sheeting, thermal blankets, sleeping mats, winter clothing and so on,” said Sivanka Dhanapala, a UNHCR representative in Syria.

The United Nations agency said 6.8 million people were already displaced internally within the country since the start of the civil war that ripped through Syria in 2011.

“All this, of course, impacts the access for aid,” Dhanapala said. “Roads have been damaged and that hampers us trying to reach people. It’s been very, very difficult.” 

Based on “a preliminary estimate,” the refugee organization said “5.37 million people affected by the quake will need shelter assistance in the whole of Syria.”

“That is a huge number and comes to a population already suffering mass displacement,” according to Dhanapala.

The United States is “ramping up” assistance to Turkey and Syria following the catastrophic earthquake that struck on Monday, the White House told reporters Friday. 

John Kirby, the White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, said the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has already deployed a disaster assistance and response team to Turkey.

Two additional urban search and rescue teams are also “conducting operations in support of Turkish rescue efforts” in the hardest-hit areas of Turkey, for a sum-total of 200 personnel, assisted with specialized equipment and canine support dogs, according to Kirby. He said the US is deploying assistance teams via Blackhawk helicopters from Incirlik Air Force Base in Southern Turkey.

On Thursday, USAID announced $85 million in funding for the region to provide “emergency food and shelter for refugees and newly displaced people, winter supplies to help families brave the cold, critical health care services to provide trauma support, safe drinking water to prevent disease, and hygiene and sanitation assistance to keep people safe and healthy.”

In Syria, Kirby said, humanitarian partners are “urgently scaling up response efforts,” including the launch of charter flights carrying medical supplies, the distribution of hot meals and the deployment of 20 truckloads of medicine and food into the country, as a way to “underscore that US sanctions will not prevent or inhibit prohibiting humanitarian assistance in Syria.” 

He pointed to a license from the US Treasury that provides additional authorizations for humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people. 

The death toll following the earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria this week has climbed to 23,726, according to authorities.

In Turkey, the death toll has risen to at least 20,213 with 80,052 others reported injured, according to Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.

The total number of deaths in Syria stands at 3,384 — including 2,166 in rebel-held areas in the northwest, according to the White Helmets civil defense group — and 1,347 deaths in government-controlled parts of Syria, according to Syrian state media.

The number of injured people in Syria across all affected territories stands at 5,245, with 2,295 in government-controlled areas and 2,950 in rebel-held areas.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said at least 20,213 people were killed and 80,052 injured in the earthquake that struck 10 provinces in Turkey this week, according to Turkey’s state media Anadolu. 

He said citizens rescued from the wreckage have been transferred to provinces outside of earthquake-struck regions.

Digital photos of those whose identities are unknown are being uploaded to “special software for matching,” Koca said.

“I hope that we will reach the identity information of most of the people,” he added.

The total death toll in Turkey and Syria surpassed 22,000 on Friday.

While the Syrian government has said it will allow aid deliveries to rebel-held areas of the country, the head of a UN aid agency tells CNN they haven’t received any specifics from officials.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), which has been working to aid those impacted by the devastating Turkey-Syria earthquake, has not received any specific places or times to enter the territories, said António Vitorino, the organization’s director-general.

The Syrian government said earlier Friday it would allow aid into rebel-held areas if it does not go into “terrorist” hands. Vitorino called that a “political statement.”

He said all of the IOM’s aid goes to those in need.

“We do not make any discrimination,” he told CNN’s Lynda Kinkade.

More on aid deliveries to the area: The delivery of urgent supplies to quake-hit areas of northern Syria has been complicated by a long-running civil war between opposition forces and the Syrian government, led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is accused of killing his own people.

Two UN convoys carrying aid have entered the rebel-held northwest through the only authorized border crossing in Turkey, while Assad’s government has received planeloads of aid from countries around the world.

A mother and her two daughters were rescued alive on the fifth day of the earthquake that struck 10 provinces on Monday, according to CNN Turk.

The mother was rescued in the 111th hour and her two daughters were rescued back-to-back in the 112th hour in the hard-hit city of Kahramanmaras, according to CNN Turk’s reporting. 

The Syrian government has approved sending aid into rebel-held territory in the northwest of the country, a statement said Friday, but officials provided no specific timeline. 

Syrian officials have repeatedly said they are “ready” to send help to the territories, but no aid from the government has reportedly entered the rebel-held areas since the earthquake on Monday.

More background: The delivery of urgent supplies to quake-hit areas of northern Syria has been complicated by a long-running civil war between opposition forces and the Syrian government, led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is accused of killing his own people.

Two UN convoys carrying aid have entered the rebel-held northwest through the only authorized border crossing in Turkey, while Assad’s government has received planeloads of aid from countries around the world.

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said on Wednesday that any aid Syria receives must go through the capital Damascus.

“The Syrian state is ready to allow aid to enter into all regions, provided that it does not reach terrorist armed groups,” he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said more than 141,000 rescue personnel are working on the ground in 10 earthquake-struck provinces in Turkey. 

“We have more than 141,000 personnel, including foreign teams, working on the ground in 10 provinces. The Disaster Management Agency and other institutions are offering tents, containers, and prefabricated buildings, so that they can meet the needs quickly,” he said during a speech in the city of Malatya.

Erdogan said that Turkish institutions and organizations are providing hot meals to relief teams for the survivors of the earthquake through mobile kitchens and soup kitchens.

“We have allocated an initial fund of 100 billion Turkish Liras ($5,309,405.33) for all this work,” he said, adding that from “the AFAD (Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management) emergency fund, we are starting to offer 15,000 Turkish Liras ($796.51) per household in relocation aid to citizens whose homes have collapsed or moderately or severely damaged.” 

Erdogan also said those who had their own homes destroyed will receive 5,000 Turkish Lira ($265.50) per month in aid and those who have had rentals destroyed will get 2,000 Turkish Lira ($106.20) per month.

Monday’s earthquake and aftershocks in Turkey and Syria have left more than 22,000 dead. The tragedy has surpassed numbers from other deadly earthquakes, including Japan’s Fukushima disaster in 2011.

Families are grieving as they begin to bury their loved ones across the two countries.

While President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was facing the strongest opposition yet to his presidency in this upcoming election, the devastating earthquake could change the electoral equation for the Turkish strongman, who hopes an upcoming election will extend his rule well into a third decade, analysts say.

Many of the 10 hardest-hit provinces of the country’s south have traditionally supported him and his AK Party. Erdogan has been visiting impacted areas, consoling victims and pledging to rebuild the thousands of flattened homes. But there is disgruntlement with the government’s response in those areas, where some people complain that scores of bodies are yet to be collected, causing the stench of death to spread.

For Turkey’s rulers, quakes have been game changers in the past: In what later became a defining moment for Erdogan’s ascension to power, the 1999 quake – and the slow relief efforts that followed – only added to the sense of disillusionment many felt toward the nationalist, secularist state in power at the time, analysts say.

After the 1999 earthquake, the state “collapsed like a house of cards,” Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told CNN on Thursday.

This time around, the Turkish opposition is already speaking out about the government’s perceived shortcomings in dealing with the tragedy. Following a nationwide restriction on social media after the earthquake, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, said, “This insane palace government cut off social media communication.”

“As a result, crying for help is less heard,” he tweeted on Wednesday. “We know everything you’re trying to hide.”

With additional reporting by Yusuf Gezer in Iskenderun, Turkey.

John Morrison of the Fairfax County Fire Department in Virginia is one of over 150 search-and-rescue members deployed to Turkey through the United States Agency for International Development. His team, which has been around the world to assist with disasters, is currently searching the entire city of Adiyaman for earthquake survivors.

“We still have a lot of hope that there are victims out here that are viable, and we are working diligently to find them,” he told CNN’s Kate Bolduan.

While his team has not found anyone alive in the rubble yet, he said he has previously seen victim rescues after even more than a week following an earthquake.

Since the quake in Turkey struck when many citizens were asleep, Morrison said that survivors could be wrapped up in blankets from their beds to help keep them warm in the cold temperatures.

Hypothermia is a big concern, he said, but his team has doctors ready to treat patients.

While it is a “widespread disaster,” search-and-rescue members try to whittle down the task by conferring with local authorities and people on the street to see if they’ve heard any noise from under the rubble, he said.

The death toll following the earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria this week has climbed to at least 22,772, according to authorities.

In Turkey, the death toll has risen to at least 19,388 with 77,711 others reported injured, according to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  

The total number of deaths in Syria stands at 3,384 — including 2,037 in rebel-held areas in the northwest, according to the White Helmets civil defense group – and 1,347 deaths in government-controlled parts of Syria, according to Syrian state media.

The total number of injured people in Syria across all affected territories stands at 5,245, with 2,295 in government-controlled ares and 2,950 in rebel-held areas.

At least 82,956 people in Syria and Turkey were injured following the quakes, according to the Turkish president, the White Helmets and Syrian state media.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad criticized Western countries in his first televised comments since the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck parts of the country five days ago, Syrian state media showed.

Assad and his wife, Asma, visited different sites affected by the earthquake and visited survivors at a hospital in Aleppo, pictures on state-run news agency SANA showed.

Standing near a building destroyed by the earthquake, Assad told reporters that Western countries “have no regard for the human condition.” This comment is in line with statements heard from government officials and Syria’s state-run media, who have pinned the lack of humanitarian aid and hindered rescue equipment on US and EU sanctions.

The US says its sanctions are not imposed on humanitarian efforts, and on Friday, the US Treasury issued a “General License” for 180 days, which authorizes all earthquake relief-related transactions otherwise prohibited by sanctions regulations. The Syrian Foreign Ministry called this a measure a means to give a “false impressions of humanity,” SANA said.

Remember: Almost 11 million people have been affected by the disaster in Syria, the UN said. The death toll in Syria stands at least 3,384, including 2,037 in rebel-held areas in the northwest, according to the “White Helmets” civil defense group – and 1,347 deaths in government-controlled parts of Syria, according to Syrian state media. More than 5,000 people have been injured across all affected territories, according to authorities.

The delivery of urgent supplies to quake-hit areas of northern Syria has been complicated by a long-running civil war between opposition forces and Assad’s government, who is accused of killing his own people. Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad says any aid it receives must go through the capital Damascus.

That leaves rebel-held areas reliant on aid groups including the UN, who has only been able to send two convoys since Monday, which is starkly different to Turkey, where 70 countries and 14 international organizations have promptly offered teams of rescuers, donations and aid as of Thursday.

At least 19,388 people have died in Turkey due to Monday’s earthquake, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

There are also 77,711 people who were injured, he said during his speech in Malatya Friday. 

Turkish Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdag said Friday that judicial investigations have started for builders in regions affected by Monday’s deadly earthquake, according to Turkey’s state media Anadolu. 

“Our chief public prosecutor’s offices started everywhere their judicial investigations regarding these events,” Bozdag said during a news conference.

Bozdag said 206 public prosecutors have been appointed by the country’s Council of Judges and Prosecutors to manage judicial processes in earthquake-stricken areas, Anadolu reported. 

Bozdag also said necessary measures are being taken to arrest those responsible and to impose a ban on their international travel. 

Why did buildings collapse? USGS structural engineer Kishor Jaiswal told CNN Tuesday that Turkey has experienced significant earthquakes in the past, including a quake in 1999 which hit southwest Turke and killed more than 14,000 people. Because of this, he said, many parts of Turkey have regional building regulations to ensure construction projects can withstand these types of events.

But not all buildings have been built according to the modern Turkish seismic standard, Jaiswal said. Deficiencies in the design and construction, especially in older buildings, mean that many buildings could not withstand the severity of the shocks.

“If you are not designing these structures for the seismic intensity that they may face in their design life, these structures may not perform well,” said Jaiswal.

CNN’s  Lauren Said-Moorhouse, Christian Edwards, Krystina Shveda and Henrik Pettersson contributed to this post.

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01:16 - Source: cnn

A New York City family was visiting relatives in Turkey when they were killed by Monday’s deadly earthquake.

Salma Salazar told CNN her family is heartbroken with the loss of her sister, her brother-in-law and two nephews ages one and two. She had to come to terms with the tragedy and accept that she could not get to Turkey to grieve as the country still deals with the disaster, making impacted areas hard to access.

“We’re all very broken in my family. And me and my sister — our hearts are broken,” she told CNN, saying her sister was “very lovable. She was very passionate about everything that she did, and she certainly put everyone’s needs above her own.”

CNN reported Thursday that Burak Firik, a former board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations New York Chapter (CAIR-NY), was killed along with his wife Kimberly and their sons Hamza and Bilal, CAIR-NY Legal Director Ahmed M. Mohamed told CNN.

The family was in an apartment building in the Kahramanmaras region, the epicenter of deadly earthquake, according to Mohammed, and the apartment building collapsed during the earthquake. Mohamed said he’d known Firik since 2019 and had last talked to him a few months ago before he went to Turkey to be with his father, who was having open-heart surgery.

“He was very selfless. He was extremely intelligent. And all he wanted to do was help. Help the community,” Salazar told CNN about her brother-in-law.

Salazar said the only surviving member was her brother-in-law’s father, who watched their building collapse in front of his eyes.

“He spent over 12 hours digging, and just finding people to help him dig, because the machines weren’t able to go in,” Salazar told CNN.

Salazar appealed for help as rescue efforts continue.

“I want people to know that this is a big problem right now in Turkey and in Syria. And although I lost my family, there are currently still people under there. There are children,” she said, adding that the death toll is rising. “This is really difficult to see this.”

CNN’s David Williams and Gloria Pazmino contributed reporting to this post.

Monday’s earthquake and aftershocks in Turkey and Syria have left more than 22,000 dead. The tragedy has surpassed numbers from other deadly earthquakes, including Japan’s Fukushima disaster in 2011.

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck off Japan’s coast, triggering a tsunami that caused a nuclear meltdown at the power plant and a major release of radioactive material. It was the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

The combined total of confirmed deaths and missing was more than 22,000 (nearly 20,000 deaths and 2,500 missing). Deaths were caused by the initial earthquake and tsunami and by post-disaster health conditions.

Here’s how Monday’s earthquake compares to others around the world:

CNN’s Emiko Jozuka and Helen Regan contributed to this post.

A second UN convoy of aid entered rebel-held territory in northwest Syria from Bab al-Hawa crossing on Friday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA). 

Friday’s convoy included 14 International Organization for Migration (IOM) trucks carrying tents, blankets, mattresses, cleaning materials, baskets and food materials, according to Mazen Alloush, the communications director for the administration that controls Bab al-Hawa crossing.

First UN aid convoy: The first UN aid convoy crossed from Turkey into northwestern Syria on Thursday for the first time since a massive earthquake struck the region on Monday claiming 22,000 lives.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) said Thursday’s convoy, made up of six trucks carrying shelter items and Non Food Items (NFI), crossed through the Bab al-Hawa crossing – the only humanitarian aid corridor between Turkey and Syria. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that the Turkey’s government will pay citizens’ rent for one year if they do not wish to stay in tents.

During his visit to the southeastern city of Adiyaman, Erdogan stated again that the government will rebuild the collapsed buildings in one year.

“In the meantime, we will offer 10,000 Turkish Lira ($530.92) to our citizens. In addition, for citizens who are not staying in tents, who don’t want to stay in tents, we will ensure that they are able move to residential units, and we will cover their rent,” he said.

He also mentioned that if quake citizens would prefer to stay in hotels, “we can also offer them this accommodation.”

CNN’s Gokce Katkici contributed reporting to this post.

Reports of attacks on businesses and robberies are coming in from regions impacted by Monday’s earthquake, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday, adding he “will not leave any room for abuse.”

Under the declared state of emergency, the government has “secured the authorities it needs” to crackdown on these crimes, he said in Adiyaman, Turkey.

“From now on, these abusers will be subject to the penalties necessary as soon as they have been apprehended,” Erdogan added. 

The earthquake death toll in Turkey and Syria has climbed to 22,375, according to authorities.

A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake impacted Turkey and Syria, followed by more than 100 aftershocks, including one that was 7.5 in magnitude.

At least 80,768 people in Syria and Turkey were injured, according to authorities.

Here’s a breakdown:

Turkey’s numbers:

At least 18,991 have died and 75,523 others are reported injured, according to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

Syria numbers:

There have been at least 3,384 deaths and 5,245 injuries across rebel-held areas and government-controlled areas.

At least 2,037 people have died, and 2,950 have been injured in rebel-held areas in the northwest, according to the ‘White Helmets’ civil defense group.

There were 1,347 deaths and 2,295 injuries reported in government-controlled parts of Syria, according to Syrian state media. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that the death toll from Monday’s devastating earthquake climbed to 18,991.

Additionally, 75,523 others have been reported injured, he said.

Five days — approximately 102 hours — after the earthquake struck, rescue workers pulled out a family of six, including two parents and their four children, from their collapsed first floor home in Iskenderun.

Furkan Oktay cried as he stood in the crowd watching his mother, Yasemin Oktay, be pulled out first, followed by his 17-year-old sister Dilan Oktay.

Furkan was the only member of the family who was not in the home when the earthquake struck, according to CNN Turk.

His father, Kadri Oktay, was the third to be rescued, and he waved to the gathered crowd and rescue workers as he was taken on a stretcher to an ambulance.

The youngest member of the family, 14-year-old Arda Oktay, was the fourth to be rescued, followed by his older sisters — 22-year-old Zilan Oktay and 24-year-old Helin Oktay.

Rescue teams cried and hugged each other following the miraculous rescues.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is calling for more access to Syrian territories impacted by the deadly earthquake to replenish aid supplies that have been exhausted, with the organization’s executive director calling the situation in the northwest of the country “catastrophe on top of catastrophe.”

“What stocks we have are being exhausted quickly, especially the ready to eat rations, and they need to be replenished quickly. To do this, we need access,” David Beasley said.

Here’s some background: In the past aid was brought into northwest Syria through Turkey from Bab al-Hawa crossing – the only point of entry authorized by the UN Security Council. A resolution proposing more border openings between Turkey and Syria was vetoed by Russia and China.

The other path in was through “crosslines,” aid coming in from Syrian government territory into the rebel-held northwest.

“The one crossing authorized by the Security Council has been re-opened, but damage to roads and slowed customs clearances are significantly hampering movement,” Beasley said.

“We need to resume and increase cross-line operations from inside Syria. This is not the time for anyone to politicize aid.”

The WFP is aiming to provide ready-to-eat meals for 100,000 people in northwest Syria and have regular rations for 1.4 million people with partners ready for distribution.

But the organization still needs $700 million to feed almost 6 million people in Syria.

More than 21,000 people have died in Turkey and Syria after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck on Monday, and rescue workers are now racing against time to pull survivors from the rubble of collapsed buildings in freezing winter conditions.

But years of conflict and an acute humanitarian crisis mean there are extra difficulties in helping survivors in Syria, where international aid has been slow to arrive.

The situation in Syria is starkly different to Turkey, where dozens of countries and international organizations have offered teams of rescuers, donations and aid.

Long wait for aid: It took until Thursday for the first United Nations aid convoy to cross from Turkey into northwestern Syria.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Thursday’s convoy, made up of six trucks carrying shelter items and Non Food Items, crossed through the Bab al-Hawa crossing – the only humanitarian aid corridor between Turkey and Syria.

Civil war disrupts aid efforts: The delivery of urgent supplies to quake-hit areas of northern Syria has been complicated by a long-running civil war between opposition forces and the Syrian government, led by President Bashar al-Assad, who is accused of killing his own people.

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad says any aid it receives must go through the capital Damascus. “The Syrian state is ready to allow aid to enter into all regions, provided that it does not reach terrorist armed groups,” he said.

That leaves rebel-held areas reliant on aid groups including the UN.

Millions living in the rebel-held areas of northern Syria were already suffering from the effects of extreme poverty and a cholera outbreak when the quake hit. Now many are fending for themselves.

The number of people who were in need of humanitarian assistance before the earthquake stood at 15.3 million – but that number will now have to be revised, UN Resident Coordinator for Syria, El-Mostafa Benlamlih said.

In Aleppo alone 100,000 people are believed to be homeless, with 30,000 of that number currently sheltered in schools and mosques.

“Those are the lucky ones,” Benlamlih said.

The remaining 70,000 “have snow, they have cold and they are living in a terrible situation,” he added.

Freezing temperatures: The scale of the challenge is amplified by the fact that affected areas in both Turkey and Syria are facing colder than normal temperatures. For example, the Syrian city of Aleppo is forecast to have lows of -3°C to -2°C (27°F to 28°F) through this weekend, whereas February low are normally 2.5°C (36°F).

Read more:

Earthquake victims bodies returned from Turkey to Syria via Bab al Hawa crossing.

Related article 'Secondary disaster' looms as UN aid finally reaches survivors battling frozen conditions in Syria | CNN

The families of 263 children who were pulled out of the rubble in Turkey cannot be reached, the country’s Ministry of Family and Social Services said Friday.

Among the rescued children whose families could not be reached, 162 children are continuing to be treated at the hospitals, while 101 children were transferred to the relevant units of the ministry and taken under institutional care after their treatment.

The ministry announced that 18 children have been handed over to their families after identity checks and verification.

Climbing death toll: More than 21,000 people have died in Turkey and Syria, and rescue workers are now racing against time to pull survivors from the rubble of collapsed buildings in freezing winter conditions.

At least 78,124 people were injured across both countries, according to authorities.

Pakistan has sent a cargo plane carrying 20 metric tons (22 short tons) of relief goods for earthquake victims in Turkey as the search for survivors continues across the country.

“Just saw off a cargo plane carrying relief goods of 20-tonne for the earthquake victims of Türkiye. Pakistan has established an air, land & sea bridge for the provision of relief assistance for our brothers & sisters in Syria and Türkiye,” Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Friday.

“The people of Pakistan cannot forget how Türkiye came forward to help us at the time of earthquake of 2005 & super floods of 2010. The Islamic concept of brotherhood binds us in a unique relationship where we share the pain of each other,” Sharif added in a separate tweet.

Pakistan sent rescue and relief teams as well as goods to Turkey on the day the earthquake struck, before deploying two contingents of the Pakistani Army emergency staff on Tuesday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to visit Adiyaman and Malatya provinces on Friday to inspect the areas affected by Monday’s earthquake, Turkish state broadcaster TRT Haber reported.

The provinces are located toward the south of the country, and north of Gaziantep, the epicenter of the 7.8-magnitude quake.

More than 21,000 people have died in Turkey and Syria, and rescue workers are now racing against time to pull survivors from the rubble of collapsed buildings in freezing winter conditions.

At least 78,124 people were injured across both countries, according to authorities.

Two teenage sisters have been rescued in Kahramanmaraş city 101 hours after the massive earthquake hit Turkey, firefighters said.

In a statement Friday, the Antalya Metropolitan Fire Department said Ayfer, 15, was pulled from the rubble in the 99th hour after the quake, and her sister, Fatma, 13, was saved two hours later.

Rescuers using seismic sensors detected signs of life under the debris and conducted a 10-hour rescue operation to reach where Ayfer was located, the statement said. 

The firefighters spoke with Ayfer in an effort to keep her conscious. She said she missed eating ice cream and they promised to get her some when she was out safely.

They also played music that she requested.

The firefighters traveled some 800 kilometers (500 miles) from the city of Antalya to join the rescue efforts in Kahramanmaraş.

Earthquake survivors in Turkey’s hard-hit coastal city of Iskenderun say they are losing hope of finding those still missing.

Server Onen said he had spent days searching for his friend under the wreckage of an apartment building in the southern city.

Others, like Suheyl Sumbultepe, have been forced to accept their loved ones are gone.

Sumbultepe, who told CNN he saw his mother’s leg, said, “I’m not able to reach her. She is there. I see her but I cannot touch her. I understand my mother is dead. I am trying to get my mother.” 

“Our government helps but it’s not enough, obviously. So we are trying to get our people by our own,” he said. “We need you. We need everyone who can come and help us.”

Some, like Burak Dik, have been successful in their efforts.

Dik said he flew from London to find his sister and other relatives, who were rescued from under the rubble after 15 hours. He told CNN it’s a miracle they made it out and likened the situation in Turkey to “a very bad dream.”

More than 76 hours after Monday’s devastating earthquake struck southern Turkey, three men emerged alive and uninjured from the rubble in the city of Gaziantep after frantic relatives and neighbors joined the rescue operation to save them.

Mithat Tabur, and his sons Ersin, 30, and Mustafa, 26, were rescued from the wreckage of an eight-story apartment building in the city’s Ibrahimli suburb after search teams detected them in what was left of their living room.

Tabur’s wife, Ayer, was located in the kitchen without a heartbeat. Rescue teams are now trying to retrieve her body from under the rubble.  

More than 100 people lived in their building and roughly a quarter of the residents made it out alive.  

Omer Kocok, a relative of the Taburs, told CNN early Wednesday that his cousins were able to make contact with the rescue teams through cell phone calls — giving them signs of life. 

“Ersin was the one who called us for help,” Omer told CNN. 

Omer volunteered to dig, assisting rescue workers in their painstaking work of sifting through the rubble. 

Mustafa’s high school friend, English teacher Alptekin Talanci, said Mustafa was a civil engineer working for the local government. CNN reporters met Talanci outside the collapsed building, where he had been waiting in the cold for two days, hoping his friend would come out alive. 

The day the quake struck, Talanci said it was snowing and he had gone with Mustafa to watch a movie at the cinema.

“At the end of it, he told me he needed to go home in case they called him to shovel and clean the roads. Right after that, the earthquake happened, and I tried to call him but I couldn’t catch any signals. In the morning, I heard that his building collapsed…I came here and saw the ruins and all of a sudden I started crying. Since then, I’ve been here, waiting for any kind of noise, any kind of help,” he said. 

Talanci credits the survival of the Tabur sons and their father to Ersin’s training as a paramedic.

“He knew how to survive if these kinds of situations happened. He also had his phone with him luckily,” Talanci said.

Photos from across southern Turkey and northern Syria show scenes of devastation and suffering as hopes fade of finding survivors more than four days after Monday’s massive earthquake struck the region.

More than 21,000 people have died in both countries and rescue workers are now racing against time to pull survivors from the rubble of collapsed buildings in freezing winter conditions.

At least 78,124 people were injured across Turkey and Syria, according to authorities.

A UN aid convoy crossed from Turkey into northwestern Syria on Thursday for the first time since the earthquake hit. The six trucks carrying shelter items and Non-Food Items (NFI) drove through the Bab Al Hawa border crossing, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he is open to the idea of delivering aid via additional border crossings, other than the Bab al-Hawa, which is the only humanitarian aid corridor approved by the UN between Turkey and rebel-held areas of northern Syria.

In Syria, the earthquake’s devastation heaps misery on top of an existing humanitarian crisis resulting from a more than decade-long civil war.  Millions living in northwest Syria, much of which is controlled by anti-government rebels, were already suffering from the effects of extreme poverty and a cholera outbreak when the quake hit.

Now many are fending for themselves, as many Western nations have refused to send aid directly to the Syrian regime, which is under US and EU sanctions. 

The Syria Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, has warned that the hope of finding survivors is fading inside the country.

Mousa Zidane, a volunteer with the group told CNN on Thursday that in the aftermath of the quakes, “tens of thousands of families are currently homeless all over northwest Syria.”

The cold weather is adding to the catastrophe, he said, as rescue teams struggle to extract people from under the rubble.

In the rebel-held Idlib governorate, a man told AFPTV on Thursday he had been digging through rubble with his hands as he searched for 30 relatives in the village of Besnaya.

Malik Ibrahim, 40, said he had retrieved 10 bodies, after searching for two days without sleep.

“It’s ineffable, words fail me, it’s tragic,” he said. “The whole family is gone, and all our memories are buried with them.”

Hundreds of thousands of people in Syria have been left homeless in the middle of winter following Monday’s deadly earthquakes. Across northwestern Syria — where temperatures are below freezing — many people are staying in makeshift shelters, mosques and in the ruins of destroyed buildings.

Mousa Zidane, a volunteer with the “White Helmets,” officially known as Syria Civil Defense, told CNN on Thursday that in the aftermath of the quakes, “tens of thousands of families are currently homeless all-over northwest Syria.”

“Hundreds of families in Idlib are sleeping in their cars, public parks, and streets,” after their homes were destroyed, Zidane said. “Even those who still have homes, they are scared to spend the night indoors, they briefly go to their homes during the day then they leave at night out of fear [of further earthquakes].”

Zidane said the cold weather is adding to the catastrophe, as rescue teams struggle to extract people from under the rubble.

People need their homes back and their dead “pulled out and buried,” Zidane added. 

When asked about diggers, Zidane said they were not initially available, but a limited number are now working to clear the debris. “Not enough to cover the whole area. We need more,” he said. 

Zidane said there is limited access to aid that doesn’t cover people’s needs in northwest Syria, much of which is controlled by anti-government rebels amid a humanitarian crisis resulting from Syria’s more than decade-long civil war. 

“We are feeling, again, like we are abandoned by the world. We are feeling like the world let us down, again, because no one came and helped us with our catastrophe,” Zidane said in a tweeted video.

With the death toll in Turkey and Syria surpassing 21,000, the earthquake has now marked a grim milestone — it’s in the top 10 of deadliest quakes over the past 20 years.

A number of factors have contributed to making this earthquake so lethal. One of them is the time of day it occurred. With the quake hitting early in the morning, many people were in their beds when it happened, and are now trapped under the rubble of their homes.

Additionally, with a cold and wet weather system moving through the region, poor conditions have made reaching affected areas trickier, and rescue and recovery efforts on both sides of the border significantly more challenging once teams have arrived.

The 7.8 magnitude quake earlier this week struck 23 kilometers (14.2 miles) east of Nurdagi, in Turkey’s Gaziantep province, at a depth of 24.1 kilometers (14.9 miles), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.

Syria Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, said they have been working nonstop for more than 90 hours “in very difficult circumstances,” to rescue people trapped under rubble following the deadly earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria Monday.

The volunteer organization said they would continue rescue operations in the affected areas of opposition-controlled northern Syria into Friday. However, the organization tweeted a warning that the hope of finding survivors is now “fading.” 

The impacted areas include the countryside of Aleppo in northern Syria and the countryside of Idlib in northeastern Syria.

Rescues continue across the 10 provinces of Turkey impacted by Monday’s deadly earthquake.

Three girls between the ages of 5 and 10 were found alive under the debris during a search-and-rescue operation in Kahramanmaras on Thursday, according to CNN affiliate CNN Turk. 

One of the girls was pulled from beneath the rubble in the 89th hour since the earthquake struck, CNN Turk reported.

The other two girls are in communication with the search-and-rescue team but are still trapped, as efforts to pull them free continue, according to CNN Turk.

In Adiyaman, a 17-year-old girl, Gulsum Yesilkaya, was saved Thursday after a 27-hour rescue operation, according to CNN Turk. She was taken directly to the ambulance, CNN Turk reported. 

Yigit Akar, 23, was also rescued on Thursday, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency. He was trapped underneath the rubble of a building in Gaziantep’s Islahiye district in the Camlica neighborhood, Anadolu reported. 

A 10-year-old girl was found alive in the 90th hour since Turkey’s earthquake, according to a statement from the Antalya Metropolitan Fire Department on Thursday.

Hilal Sağlam was trapped underneath the rubble of a building located in the Hatay province. The rescue team “heard the sound from under the rubble” and were able to rescue Sağlam “as a result of a meticulous 7-hour work in the wreckage,” the statement added,

“The injured girl, who was taken to the stretcher with great joy and applause, was sent to the hospital for treatment by ambulance,” the fire department said.

The first thing she asked for after her rescue was milk, the statement said.

The United States will provide $85 million for humanitarian assistance to those impacted by the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

“This new funding is supporting USAID’s humanitarian partners to deliver urgently-needed aid for millions of people in Türkiye and in Syria,” the US Agency for International Development said in a press release Thursday.

The aid includes food and shelter for refugees and those who’ve been displaced, as well as winter supplies to help people in the bitterly cold temperatures, trauma support, clean drinking water and sanitation assistance. 

USAID has deployed a disaster assistance response team, which is made up of 200 people and 12 dogs, and is operating out of the cities of Adiyaman, Adana and Ankara.

The agent of Ghanaian soccer star Christian Atsu says the player’s whereabouts are still not known, reversing course just a few days after telling CNN Sport that the Hatayspor winger was rescued from rubble after being caught in the earthquakes that struck southern Turkey.

“I am currently in Istanbul. The situation remains the same, Christian Atsu is yet to be found. Unless I see Christian, or speak with him, I have no further updates,” Nana Sechere said on social media on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Sechere tweeted that it had come to light, contrary to prior reports, that Atsu was still missing.

“Following yesterday’s (Tuesday’s) update from the club that Christian had been pulled out alive, we are yet to confirm Christian’s whereabouts. As you can imagine, this continues to be a devastating time for his family and we are doing everything we can to locate Christian,” he said.

Sechere had originally told CNN on Tuesday that he had “official confirmation” from Hatayspor that Atsu “was in hospital and that he is stable.”

In a WhatsApp message to CNN on Thursday, Sechere said that “every update that I have provided has come from my communications with the club, the British Consulate in Istanbul, the Ghana Consulate, The Ministry of Health, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Turkish Football Federation.

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