By Ghaith Alsayed and Abby Sewell —
The Associated Press
A steady stream of wounded poured into an overflowing hospital in the rebel-held northwestern Syrian city of Darkush on Monday following the deadly earthquake that rocked the region.
Mothers pounced on children crying.
In the midst of the chaos, a man sat with a dazed expression, his face covered in wounds.
Osama Abdul Hamid had barely made it out alive with his wife and his four children from his apartment building in the nearby town of Azmarin.
Many of his neighbors were not so lucky.
“The building has four floors, and no one came out of three of them,” Abdul Hamid said, breaking down in tears.
“God gave me a new chance in life
,” he added.
A Syrian man cries as he carries the body of his son in Jandaris, in the rebel-held part of Aleppo province, on Monday.BAKR ALKASEM/AFP via Getty Images
In an equally overflowing hospital in the city of Idlib, Shajul Islam, a British doctor who works with various non-governmental organizations, was having the worst day of his seven years working in Syria.
“I am disconnecting a patient from a respirator to give another a chance, having to decide which patient has a better chance of surviving or not,” he explained.
The hospital, already suffering from a lack of healthcare infrastructure and funding cuts, was hit particularly hard after the quake as other hospitals in the area are out of service.
“We have quite a few hospitals that had already been hit in the war.
So they already had the foundation, everything had weakened, ”he said.
With the added tragedy of the earthquake, he said, "we've had at least three or four hospitals put out of service."
People injured in the aftermath of the earthquake receive treatment at al-Rahma Hospital in the city of Darkush, Idlib province, northern Syria, Monday, February 6, 2023. Ghaith Alsayed / AP
A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck before dawn on Monday caused new damage and suffering in Syria's last rebel enclave, already ravaged by years of fighting and shelling and home to millions of displaced Syrians who fled their homes during the war. civilian of the country
Hospitals and clinics were inundated with the wounded.
In the enclave, centered in Idlib province, many of the displaced live in dire conditions in makeshift camps.
Many others, there and in neighboring government-controlled areas, are staying in buildings weakened by earlier shelling and even more vulnerable to earthquake shock.
The quake caused full and partial damage to buildings in at least 58 villages and towns in northwestern Syria, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The death toll from the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria rises
Feb 6, 202302:28
More than 2,300 people have been killed in Turkey and Syria, and the number is expected to rise.
In opposition-controlled Syrian territory, at least 390 people are reported dead, but hundreds more are believed to have been buried under the rubble of their homes.
“This disaster will worsen the suffering of Syrians who are already struggling with a serious humanitarian crisis,” said Carsten Hansen, Middle East director for the Norwegian Refugee Council.
"Millions have already been forced to flee by the war in the wider region and now many more will be displaced," he added.
At Darkush hospital in western Idlib, Abdel Hamid said his family was sleeping in their apartment when they were awakened by a strong and prolonged tremor.
They ran out of the apartment, but “before we got to the door of the building, the whole building came down on us,” he said.
On video: Security cameras capture the sound of the powerful earthquake in Turkey
Feb 6, 202301:33
A wooden door protected them from the worst force of the collapse: they all made it out alive.
He, his wife and three of his children suffered head injuries, but are stable.
Surgeon Majdi al-Ibrahim explained that the magnitude of the number of victims quickly overwhelmed the hospital.
“We need urgent help.
The danger is beyond our capacity,” he stated.
The Syrian American Medical Society, which runs hospitals in northern Syria and southern Turkey, said its facilities are "overflowing with patients filling the corridors" and urgently called for "trauma supplies and a comprehensive emergency response to save lives and treat the injured.”
Rebel-held territory in far northwestern Syria has held out for years, even after Syrian government forces retook most rebel-held areas across the country.
Fighting continues to break out from time to time with Russian-backed Syrian forces in the vicinity.
Parts of the territory are held by rebel groups, including a dominant militant faction linked to al Qaeda, while others are under a Turkish-backed administration known as the Syrian Interim Government.
A rescue worker carries a body found in the rubble in Adana, Turkey, on February 6, 2023. CAN EROK / AFP via Getty Images
The catastrophe occurred after strong winter storms, which further aggravated the misery of those left without shelter.
“It is raining and very cold, there is snow in some areas,” Abdel Hakim al-Masri, economy minister in the Turkish-backed administration, told The Associated Press news agency.
He pointed out that some of the displacement camps in the area had been decimated by the earthquake.
Al-Masri stated that efforts to find temporary shelter for people now doubly displaced by the quake have begun, but that the scale of the response required far exceeds available local resources.
"There is a lot of suffering, and this will add to it," he said, "this requires swift action by all countries of the world."
