Earthquake death toll in Turkey, Syria passes 25,000

KAHRAMANMARAS, Turkey – Even after the wounded are treated and the trapped are freed from the rubble, the disaster of the earthquakes in Turkey may continue due to less immediate dangers.

The aftershocks of the earthquake could also manifest in a lack of water and sanitation, as well as frigid temperatures.

IsraAID’s initial exploratory team assessed that clean water would be one of the major problems for area residents following the tremors. “There will be a massive need for clean water,” said IsraAID press officer Shachar May.

Dovi Maisel barely felt the tremors in his home in Ramle on Monday morning.

His wife told him there was an earthquake and he told her to go back to sleep.

The news soon broke — a magnitude 7.7 earthquake had shaken central Turkey and northern Syria, leaving thousands dead and injured.

Maisel, VP of Operations for United Hatzalah in Israel, may have missed the initial tremors, but the aftershocks of the immense tragedy that had befallen Anatolia and the Levant were not lost on him or his nonprofit volunteer emergency medical service.

After long hours of mission preparation on Monday, Maisel and CEO Eli Pollack assembled at Ben-Gurion Airport on Tuesday morning to send off an emergency medical delegation to the epicenter of the disaster in Turkey.

A team of 25 had been selected from the 400 United Hatzalah members who had immediately volunteered. The team consists of medics, doctors, search and rescue personnel, and psychotrauma specialists. Some, like Maisel, have joined multiple missions abroad — he had volunteered in Haiti and Nepal, and most recently in Moldova, providing aid to Ukrainian refugees. Others, like mission commander Yossi Cohen of Kfar Saba, would be traveling abroad for the first time with United Hatzalah.

Maisel said many were “double vests,” people who volunteered for multiple additional organizations, such as Magen David Adam.

“It’s a certain type of people,” he explained. Volunteering could be “addictive.”

A team of 25 was “ a relatively big team for go team,” said Maisel. Usually, the initial exploratory emergency teams were 5-6 people. 

“Based on the conditions on the ground and the local resources available it was decided that a larger group was needed,” he said.

Once on the ground, the team will determine what is needed for a larger attachment, such as more doctors or more search and rescue squads.

In foreboding weather, a chill rain, the team gathered, making last-minute preparations. Sleeping bags, combat rations, drones and more equipment were unloaded from trucks. The volunteers donned their orange jackets and emergency vests. 

Maisel warned the team before departure that it would not be able easy, but that they would be saving lives under the flag of Israel.

“We’ll be fulfilling Israel’s mission of saving lives abroad.”

Cohen said in a briefing before take off that “we can’t save everyone, but everyone saved is a success. Even if it’s helping a small boy who is lost in the street without his parents, that’s his success.”

Initial briefings by Cohen warned that conditions were unclear on the ground and that they didn’t fully know what operating constraints would be. 

There was talk of upwards of 40,000 casualties, killed and injured counted together. 

The safety of the volunteers was also a concern, be it the elements or the unstable structures — or terrorism.

The mission’s officers were concerned about Islamic State operatives and untethered Syrian soldiers roaming the area after the quake.

Cohen implored the team to keep themselves safe. 

“Our main mission is to save lives, but protect yourselves.” He said. 

They wouldn’t be able to help anyone if injured themselves. Everyone would operate in squads of three, and no one would go off on their own.

As the plane landed in Gaziantep, Maisel said they were going to be operating as soon as they stepped onto the tarmac, and figuring out where they were most needed. 

“We are going to meet the uncertainty of the disaster,” he said.

The expected was to be expected — such as the team of Israelis landing next to an Iranian military plane.

United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan has ordered the allocation of $100 million to support earthquake relief efforts in Syria and Turkey, state news agency WAM reported on Tuesday.

Turkey's Chief Rabbi Isak Haleva wrote a special prayer for his country after the major earthquake that killed thousands this week. Haleva published the prayer on Tuesday, in Turkish in a video and on an official document on behalf of the Chief Rabbinate of Turkey. The prayer states that the earthquake "in the southeast of our country, caused great destruction in ten provinces" and that "thousands of people, whose number we do not know yet [died]. They've torn our souls away from life."

"We are experiencing the grief of the earthquake that caused our brother's injury. Today, we stare at the sky with our tearful eyes at your vast mercy," Haleva said to God. He continued: "We open our palms and beg with all our hearts: Patience, fortitude and grace to our brothers and sisters who are currently waiting to be rescued under the rubble. Bestow courage to bring them back to their families and to society as soon as possible."

He continued asking God to "grant strength, power and success to those who struggle with self-sacrifice. Patience and tolerance for our brothers and sisters who have lost their worldly possessions and relatives. Bestow power to all kinds of people who are homeless and shelterless in the cold of this winter... Grant a speedy recovery to our wounded. Make us, our nation, our country and all humanity, free from such disasters, My God."

The southern Turkish port of Iskenderun has suffered severe structural damage due to the earthquake with all operations halted until further notice, container shipping firm AP Moller Maersk said on Tuesday.

Maersk said in an advisory it was not yet clear when the port would return to normal operations.

"Given the situation at Iskenderun, we will need to perform a change of destination for all bookings bound for the port or already on the water," it said.

"We are currently planning to divert containers to nearby hubs within operational feasibility or hold at transshipment ports - including the Port of Mersin (in Turkey) and Port Said (in Egypt)."

A total of 55 Palestinians were killed in the deadly earthquake across Syria and Turkey, Faed Mustafa, the Palestinian Authority's Ambassador to Turkey confirmed on Wednesday morning.

According to a report from the Palestine News Agency (WAFA), three Palestinian refugee camps in Syria were affected by the earthquake - the Raml refugee camp in Latakia, and the Neirab and Handrat refugee camps, both in Aleppo.

Several other Palestinian communities were impacted, all of them in the northern Syrian governorates, the news agency added.

Wearing a baseball hat and a large winter coat, Rabbi Mendy Chitrik from Istanbul can be seen in a video that he shared on Twitter, rescuing ancient Torah scrolls and parchment from the Torah Ark in the damaged synagogue of Antakya following the earthquake.

Antakya has a rich Jewish history of 2,500 years and the synagogue in the city is about 250 years old. Chitrik told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that "together with the Jewish community of Turkey, I have arrived to assist with the rescue of citizens in Antakya, so we also made sure to rescue ancient Torah scrolls from this Jewish community that has been in existence for 2,500 years."

Chitrik and the Turkish Jewish community have rescued eight scrolls and said that "the synagogue is damaged but as opposed to other buildings in the area, is still standing." 

The death toll in Turkey from the earthquake has risen to 3,549, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday as he declared a three-month state of emergency in 10 cities impacted by the disaster.

This is a developing story.

Thousands of children may have been killed in Syria and Turkey due to the deadly earthquakes that struck on Monday, UNICEF said Tuesday.

This is a developing story.

With Syrians stranded outside in the cold in northwest Syria, countries are scrambling to send aid, some of which will be flowing through Damascus to Syrian regime-controlled areas such as Aleppo and Latakia. Allies of the Syrian regime have stepped forward to provide aid.

Iran sent a Qeshm Fars Air 747 to Damascus on Monday night after the earthquake, supposedly to help victims of the natural disaster. Meanwhile, Hezbollah also issued a statement calling on countries and organizations to “use all available resources to reduce the pain and suffering of these two earthquake-stricken countries.” Russia, Iraq and other countries are also rushing to help Syrians.  

Iran is already dealing with helping victims of an earthquake that struck in its northwest region, so it’s not entirely clear what kind of aid it can and will send. Hezbollah has expressed solidarity and sympathy for the people of Syria and Turkey. Already thousands have been declared dead and the toll is expected to rise.