February 7, 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake news

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that nearly 23 million people could be impacted by the powerful earthquake that struck southern Turkey early Monday, which has left over 5,000 people dead and thousands more injured.

"Event overview maps show that potentially 23 million people are exposed, including around 5 million vulnerable populations, including more than 350,000 older people, 1.4 million children," WHO senior emergencies officer Adelheid Marschang told the UN health agency's executive board meeting in Geneva.

The head of the WHO expressed his concern at the situation, calling it a "race against time."

"We're especially concerned about areas where we do not yet have information," Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "Damage mapping is one way to understand where we need to focus our attention."

Footage of rescue efforts across both countries emerged Monday, with family members mourning the loss of loved ones while others celebrated as survivors were found in the rubble of fallen buildings.

The head of Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) said that the organization is ready to “immediately” send aid convoys to rebel-held areas, including Idlib, through the United Nations, as international leaders struggle to send aid to quake-stricken parts of northwest Syria amid ongoing conflict and political crisis.

SARC describes itself as an independent organization. The group operates primarily across government-held territories and is based in the capital Damascus. 

“We are ready to send an aid convoy through the cross-line into Idlib if they open the roads for us,” SARC President Khaled Hboubati told a news conference. 

“The death toll will increase … until right now there are buildings collapsing in Aleppo and Latakia,” Hboubati said. 

Hboubati added that the organization does not have enough capabilities to fully deal with the devastation. 

“We were in every location after the earthquake, but we do not have the equipment, we do not have heavy machinery,” Hboubati said. 

The official called for the lifting of international economic sanctions which are affecting the aid operation. 

The powerful earthquake Monday has left over 5,000 people dead and injured thousands more people across Turkey and Syria.

Dr. Bachir Tajaldin, Turkey country director at the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), told CNN earlier that sending relief to Syria will be challenging because there "is no central government to take care of the multi-sectorial response."

At least 5,034 deaths have now been confirmed in Turkey and Syria after a powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocked the region early on Monday. 

Turkey's death toll rose to at least 3,432, Turkey's Disaster Coordination Center (AKOM) said Tuesday.

The deaths were reported in the provinces of Kahramanmaraş, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır, Adana, Adıyaman, Osmaniye, Hatay, Kilis and Malatya, AKOM said. 

At least 21,103 people have been reported injured, AKOM added. Almost 26,000 search and rescue personnel have been involved in operations, along with 360 vehicles and 3,361 pieces of equipment, including more than 600 cranes, it said.

Additionally, 2,769 personnel from 65 countries have been deployed to the disaster area, according to AKOM.

In Syria, the death toll has risen to at 1,602 across government-controlled areas and opposition-controlled areas, officials said.

At least 3,649 people have been reported injured across the country, according to officials.

This post has been updated with the latest figures.

Dr. Bachir Tajaldin, Turkey country director at the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), told CNN's This Morning about the difficulty of providing aid to Syria.

“The situation in Turkey is coordinated through a very well developed government. They have infrastructure, they have rescue teams,” Tajaldin said.

SAMS is one of the many organizations providing relief in the region. This has been made harder after “the previous 12 years of crisis in Syria,” Tajaldin said. Attacks on civilian infrastructure and the absence of investment left northwestern Syria particularly vulnerable to this disaster.

“Yesterday we evacuated two maternity hospitals because of the physical impact of the earthquake on the infrastructure,” Tajaldin added.

China said it will do its best to provide assistance to Turkey and Syria after a devastating earthquake struck the region Monday, killing more than 5,000 people and injuring over 24,000 across both countries.

The first batch of aid to Turkey will be 40 million Chinese yuan ($5.9 million), while also dispatching rescue and medical teams, and emergency supplies, the spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Mao Ning said Tuesday.

Beijing is coordinating with Syria for emergency supplies and accelerating the implementation of ongoing food aid projects, Mao added.

So far no Chinese citizens have been reported killed in the earthquake, China's MOFA also confirmed.

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent condolences to his Turkish and Syrian counterparts, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Bashar al-Assad, on Monday, according to state media Xinhua, as rescuers search for survivors in the rubble of flattened buildings.

Two Israeli aid groups have chartered a flight to Gaziantep on Tuesday to bring personnel and equipment to victims of the earthquake in Turkey.

United Hatzalah, an Israeli volunteer emergency medical service, chartered the flight on El Al Airlines alongside aid group IsraAid, United Hatzalah spokesperson Raphael Poch said.

Ten search and rescue specialists, a water expert, and more than a dozen doctors, paramedics and mental health specialists will be on board the flight, according to Poch and IsraAid spokesperson Shachar May.

The groups said they will also be bringing “several tons” of humanitarian aid in the form of bedding, tents, warm clothing, food, water filters, hygiene kits, and resilience kits.

Hundreds of families remain trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings in northwest Syria following Monday's powerful earthquake, according to the White Helmets, officially known as the Syria Civil Defense.

More than 790 victims have been confirmed dead in rebel-held parts of northwest Syria, and more than 2,200 injured, the White Helmets said on Twitter.

However, “the numbers are expected to rise significantly because hundreds of families are still under the rubble,” the group said.

More than 210 buildings were destroyed by the quake in northwest Syria, the group added.

Some context: Syria, a country already suffering the effects of civil war, is facing widespread devastation from the quake. More than 1,500 fatalities and 3,600 wounded have been reported across the country, according to officials.

Some 4 million people in northern Syria were already displaced and relying on humanitarian support as a result of war, a UNICEF spokesman said earlier. Among major concerns now are a lack of access to shelter and safe drinking water amid freezing weather conditions and the risk of diseases such as cholera spreading.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will travel to Ankara on Wednesday to offer his support following the devastating earthquake.

Pakistan has also deployed two search and rescue teams to Turkey.

The international community has been quick to offer assistance to Turkey and Syria as the full scale of the disaster becomes clear.

Here's a round-up of some of the latest pledges of support: