Documenting the rescue of the 9-year-old boy from the ruins of the earthquake in Turkey.
February 10, 2023 (IDF spokesman)
In the past day, the authorities in Turkey have arrested about a hundred people on suspicion of construction offenses, against the backdrop of severe criticism of the government following the deadly earthquake that destroyed entire cities in the south of the country.
The death toll in Turkey and neighboring Syria rose today (Sunday) to more than 30,000, and it is expected to climb even more as the hours pass and the chances of finding survivors under the rubble diminish - although today a man who was buried under the rubble for six days was rescued alive.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government has been severely criticized for its response to the earthquake and preparations for a disaster of this magnitude, has promised that the reconstruction process will begin within a few weeks.
According to Erdogan, the reconstruction process will affect the results of the elections due to be held in May. Hundreds of thousands of buildings have been destroyed since Monday's earthquake.
The earthquake, which had a magnitude of 7.8, was the most destructive in Turkey since 1939 and one of the deadliest in the world since the beginning of the current millennium.
About 80 thousand people are still hospitalized in the hospitals in Turkey, and about a million residents are staying in temporary shelters.
In Hatay province, in southeastern Turkey, a Romanian rescue team rescued a 35-year-old man, identified as Mustafa, after about 149 hours under the rubble.
"He is in good condition, he is talking," said one of the rescuers.
"He said, 'Get me out of here quickly, I have claustrophobia.'"
The staff spread a blanket over him and carried him on a stretcher to a nearby ambulance, then happily hugged him.
The results of the deadly earthquake in Hatay, Turkey.
February 12, 2023 (Photo: Reuters)
Turkey has deployed police forces and soldiers to maintain order in the epicenters of the disaster, and to assist with traffic direction, rescue operations and food supplies.
However, there were reports of acts of looting by residents who were left destitute in the freezing cold.
"We can't intervene too much because most of the looters had knives," said Gizm, an aid worker who witnessed looting in the devastated city of Antakya.
The survivors of the earthquake fear the spread of diseases among them due to the lack of basic infrastructure.
"If people don't die here under the rubble, they will die from injuries. If not from them, they will die from pollution," she said.
"There are no toilets here, it's a big problem."
The head of the UN aid program, Martin Griffith, described the earthquake as the worst disaster to hit the region in a century, and he estimated that the number of victims would double, at the very least. He even praised Turkey's response and said that in his experience,
Even before the disaster, Erdogan's popularity plummeted due to high inflation and the plummeting value of the pound.
The elections are considered the biggest challenge the president has faced since he came to power 20 years ago, and the opposition accuses him of silencing criticism of his administration after access to social networks was disrupted for several hours last week.
Another issue raised by Erdogan's critics is the late deployment, according to them, of the military forces, which played a significant role after the 1999 earthquake.
Erdogan, for his part, called for solidarity and condemned his opponents.
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Ruins after the earthquake in the city of Kahramanmaras, Turkey, February 12, 2023 (Photo: Reuters)
In Syria, the earthquake severely damaged the areas controlled by the rebels in the northwest of the country.
Hundreds of thousands displaced by the war lost their homes once again, but the aid that reached them is less than that which entered the territories controlled by the Assad regime.
The EU envoy to Syria, Dan Stonescu, urged Damascus not to involve politics in the issue of humanitarian aid.
He rejected claims that the bloc did not provide the necessary aid to Syrians after the disaster.
"It is completely unfair to be accused of not providing aid, when in fact we have been doing it for more than a decade and we are even doing it more during the earthquake crisis," he told Reuters.
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