Over 34,000 dead from quake in Turkey and Syria

Our live coverage of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria has moved here.

Syrian filmmaker Fadi Al-Halabi speaks on stage following the screening of the Oscar-nominated film "Last Men in Aleppo" at a university in Idlib, Syria on February 12, 2018.

Fadi Al-Halabi, the cinematographer for the Oscar-winning short film, “The White Helmets,” and the Oscar-nominated documentary, “Last Men in Aleppo,” says he lost 13 members of his family in the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, according to a post on his Facebook page. 

Al-Halabi co-founded the Aleppo Media Center in 2012 with several other Syrian journalists, according to the Rory Peck Trust, a London-based NGO that supports the safety of freelance journalists.

The death toll across Turkey and Syria has reached at least 34,179, with relief efforts ongoing one week after the quake struck. Those efforts in Syria have been complicated by a long-running civil war and challenges of getting aid into rebel-held areas in the north of the country.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield during an interview in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, February 1.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Sunday urged the UN Security Council to approve two additional access points to deliver aid to parts of Syria hit by the deadly quake last week.

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.

Russia, which backs Assad’s regime, has previously blocked approval for another aid route to Syria at the UN.

The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator on Sunday stressed the need to “open more access points” to get aid out quicker. Meanwhile, the head of the White Helmets volunteer group urged the UN to act outside the Security Council to open three crossings for emergency aid.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has promised to bolster aid for Turkey as the country grapples with the aftermath of last Monday’s devastating earthquake. 

In a phone call Sunday, Von der Leyen told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “the Commission will mobilize additional support and respond to Türkiye’s latest request for more shelter capacity — in particular tents, blankets, heaters,” according to an EU readout of the call. 

The EU hopes to drum up additional funding for Turkey and Syria during a donor conference set to be held in Brussels in March. 

In a news release Wednesday, the bloc said its operation in the impacted regions is one of the “largest ever search and rescue operations” carried out through its Civil Protection Mechanism. A total of 21 EU member states and three participating states have so far offered 38 response teams, consisting of 1,651 people and 106 search and rescue dogs, according to the readout.

A convoy of 10 United Nations aid trucks entered northwest Syria through the Bab Al-Hawa Turkish border crossing on Sunday, UNOCHA spokesperson Madevi Sun-Suon said.

The trucks from the UN’s International Organization for Migrants (IOM) carried comprehensive shelter kits, Sun-Suon said.

She said it comes after 22 UN vehicles crossed through Bab Al-Hawa on Saturday, including:

The delivery of urgent supplies to quake-hit areas of northern Syria, much of which is held by rebels, has been complicated by the country’s long-running civil war.

On Sunday, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, tweeted from the Turkey-Syria border saying the people of northwest Syria “rightly feel abandoned.”

A nonprofit leader who uncovered injustices in Syria with powerful investigations was killed in the February 6 earthquake in Turkey with his family, the organization said Sunday.

“It is with the deepest sorrow that we announce the death of our Deputy Chief of the Syria Investigations Unit, Mustafa, and his family,” the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) said in a statement. 

“Mustafa, his wife Rola, their beautiful children Tala, Hanin, Mays and Omar all perished in the devastating earthquake that struck North-Western Syria and Turkey on 06 February 2023,” the statement said. 

“Mustafa was from Ar Rastan, Homs which is where his investigative journey began. A trained lawyer, he was a highly skilled international crimes investigator who secured enormous troves of evidence inside Syria,” the statement said. 

CIJA Director for Management and External Relations Nerma Jelacic said she met with Mustafa in Turkey last week “to plan a new future for his family, a future in which his enormous work on Syria investigations would be publicly recognized.” 

“He has done so much … He was a great investigator but his soul never hardened through the years. He remained the softest, friendliest person you could imagine,” Jelacic told CNN.   

Powerful work: Mustafa and his team, sometimes known as the “document hunters,” have worked to hold Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime accountable for heinous crimes. Syrian officials have repeatedly denied allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, insisting that they target terrorists and not peaceful protesters. 

The team, trained by former war crimes investigators and lawyers, smuggled hundreds of thousands of government documents out of war zones. Often sprinting past explosions and sniper fire to bring the papers to safety, they risk their lives to help hold the perpetrators of war crimes accountable.

CNN was granted access in 2019 by CIJA to witness firsthand how over 800,000 pages of regime documents have been smuggled out of Syria since the start of the conflict in 2011. 

Since 2012, CIJA has sought to ensure that evidence of alleged war crimes in Syria is compiled and preserved for future trials.

About CIJA: A nonprofit organization funded by Western governments, CIJA has acquired over 800,000 Syrian intelligence and security documents. Over the years, it has used these papers to build cases against senior and former officials implicated in some of the regime’s most brutal human rights abuses. 

A person visits the graves of people who lost their lives in the earthquake in Adiyaman, Turkey, on February 11.

The death toll across Turkey and Syria following Monday’s catastrophic earthquake has reached at least 34,179 on Sunday. 

The death toll in Turkey has reached 29,605, Turkish Emergency Coordination Center SAKOM said Sunday. 

The confirmed death toll in Syria is 4,574. That number includes more than 3,160 in opposition-held parts of northwestern Syria, according to the health ministry of the Salvation Government governance authority.

The Syrian death toll also includes 1,414 deaths in government-controlled parts of Syria, according to state news agency SANA.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is waiting for final approval to send crossline deliveries into northwest Syria, where rebel groups in the country’s long-running civil war control territory and aid deliveries have faced obstacles.

The WHO hopes its Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will soon be able to travel into the rebel-held areas hit by Monday’s devastating earthquake, the organization said Sunday.

Tedros and a team of top WHO officials arrived in Aleppo on Saturday on a humanitarian aid flight carrying over $290,000 worth of trauma emergency and surgical kits.

Rick Brennan, a regional emergency director with the WHO, said in a media briefing from Damascus Sunday that there have been “no crossline deliveries” into northwest Syria since the earthquake struck Monday. 

“We have one scheduled in the next couple of days. We are still negotiating for that to go ahead,” Brennan said, adding that before the earthquake the WHO was “planning a significant expansion of our crossline work.”

According to Brennan, the WHO has the approval of the Syrian government in Damascus but is waiting for the “approval … from entities on the other side.”

On Sunday, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths tweeted that “trucks with UN relief are rolling into north-west Syria,” posting pictures of trucks being loaded for cross-border deliveries. Although he said he was “encouraged by the scale-up of convoys from the UN transshipment centre at the Turkish border,” the aid chief stressed the need to “open more access points” to get aid out quicker. 

This call was echoed by Raed Al Saleh, the head of volunteer organization the White Helmets, in a tweet Sunday. Al Saleh said that after meeting with Griffiths at the Turkish-Syrian border Sunday, his group had appreciated the “apology for the shortcomings & mistakes,” made. He called on the UN to act now outside the Security Council to “open 3 crossings for emergency aid” to northwest Syria. 

An already struggling health care system: The WHO official reiterated that even before the earthquake, only 51% of medical facilities in government-held Syria were fully functional, with around 25% to 30% at partial capacity. He said that although the WHO does not have access to the same level of data when it comes to medical care in northwest, they estimated “probably similar figures” as far as capacity is concerned.

“That’s not only physical damage to the infrastructure itself, but the loss of salaries, loss of training. And it’s just been that ‘death by 1000 cuts’ to the system, and then the system has reacted admirably to what’s been a massive disaster, but people can only do so much,” Ryan remarked.

Rescue workers carry Yigit Cakmak from the site of a collapsed building in Hatay, Turkey, on Wednesday, February 8.

Five days after the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey and Syria, teams are rushing to save victims that could still be alive under rubble, with a UN liaison officer in Turkey warning that they are “approaching the end of the search and rescue window.”

While calling on the international community to “act immediately” in providing humanitarian aid to Syria, Syrian-American actor Jay Abdo told CNN on Saturday that civilians were “racing against time” to rescue loved ones.

More than 25,000 people have died across both countries, according to authorities.

However, in the midst of tragedy, there have been miraculous scenes of survival and rescue, even days after the quake.

Here’s a list of survivors who, against the odds, were found among the wreckage:

Watch a report from CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh here:

A magnitude 4.6 aftershock struck Turkey’s earthquake zone on Sunday according to AFAD, the country’s disaster management body.

A baby was rescued in Turkey’s Hatay province 108 hours after the deadly earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on Monday, according to Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on Sunday.

According to CNN affiliate CNN Turk, the baby is two months old.

Koca also posted videos of the baby to Twitter, and said he survived despite being hungry for hours. The baby is in Adana City Hospital now and is in good health, according to Koca.

Turkish state broadcaster also showed a video of the baby smiling and laughing, saying he was alive after “arduous efforts to rescue” him.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, left, and his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias inspect a quake-hit region in Hatay, Turkey, on February 12.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias arrived in Turkey on Sunday to meet his counterpart, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, in light of Monday’s deadly earthquake and the subsequent assistance Greece offered.

Greece and Turkey are often at odds over territorial disputes and migration, regularly trading threats and blame. But diplomatic tension eased this week following the quake.

Greece – a country that also sees regular earthquakes – was one of the first to send assistance for search and rescue operations.

The two ministers met in the southern Turkish city of Adana where, in a rare sight of solidarity, they embraced before departing for Hatay to meet the Greek rescue mission operating in devastated areas, according to a video by Turkish state news agency Anadolu and the official Twitter page of the Greek foreign minister.

They later held a short televised presser in Hatay, during which Cavusoglu thanked the Greek government and its people for their solidarity.

“Good neighbors prove their worth on days such as this,” said the Turkish foreign minister, adding that there was no need to wait for another disaster to improve relations between the two neighbors.

Earlier this week, Greek public broadcaster ERT showed a live rescue of a 6-year-old girl in Hatay by the Greek rescue team, which was widely shared on Greek and Turkish social media. The Greek rescue team and locals were seen clapping and hugging with tears of joy.

Dendias, who is the first European foreign minister to visit the earthquake zone, said Sunday that Greece would “do whatever it can to support Turkey in this very difficult moment.”

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote in a Facebook post Sunday: “We may have political differences, but the people of Greece and Turkey are friends.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, right, meets with UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, February 12.

The United Arab Emirates’ foreign minister met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Sunday, according to Syrian state news agency SANA.

UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan arrived in the country to discuss the repercussions of the deadly earthquake, SANA reported.

Assad thanked bin Zayed for the UAE’s support, adding that it was one of the first countries to send humanitarian assistance alongside search and rescue teams.

Bin Zayed expressed his sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to those injured, reiterating the UAE’s support.

Following the meeting with Assad, he visited areas affected by the earthquake and was briefed on efforts being made by Emirati rescue teams, SANA reported.

People mourn their relatives at a mass grave in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, on February 10.

The death toll across Turkey and Syria following Monday’s catastrophic earthquake has reached 33,181, according to the latest figures.

The death toll in Turkey has climbed to 29,605, Turkish Emergency Coordination Center SAKOM said Sunday.

In Syria, the total number of deaths stands at 3,576, including 2,168 in rebel-held areas in the northwest, according to the ‘White Helmets’ civil defense group, and 1,408 deaths in government-controlled parts of Syria, according to Syrian state media citing the health ministry on Saturday.

The White Helmets, who announced the end of their search and rescue operations on Friday, told CNN on Saturday that the total number of dead is expected to be much higher.

Turkey’s Hatay airport – which is located in one of the provinces worst hit by Monday’s catastrophic earthquake – has resumed operations, the Turkish Transport Ministry said on Sunday.

“We quickly repaired the damage on the Hatay Airport runway. Our airport started to operate today,” Turkey’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure said in its official Twitter page, sharing before and after images of the airport’s runway, which was badly damaged following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and was deemed “unusable” by officials.

According to the IGA Istanbul Airport operator, the repair works began on February 8 and lasted 96 hours.

Istanbul Airport Technical Services deputy general manager Fırat Emsen stated that construction and technical teams worked non-stop for 4 days, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.

The airport is expected to play a vital role in quickly and effectively distributing the logistics aid that was sent to the disaster area, ensuring that the aid is delivered to the earthquake victims in Hatay and surrounding provinces, Anadolu reported.

Emsen said it was “critical” to get the airport working again, according to the news agency.

The airport is located between Antakya and Iskenderun, two cities severely impacted by the earthquake.

The Austrian Army has resumed rescue operations in Turkey following a brief halt due to security risks, according to the Austrian Forces Disaster Relief Unit (AFDRU).

Operations were suspended early on Saturday due to an “increasingly difficult security situation,” AFDRU said in a statement that day, adding there was “increasing aggression between groups in Turkey.”

Later on Saturday, Austrian Army spokesman Michael Bauer said on Twitter that teams had resumed operations.

AFDRU posted a photo on Facebook with a caption stating that a rescue dog handler was again helping Turkish rescue workers, with Turkish forces providing security in the search areas.  

Since Tuesday, 82 AFDRU soldiers have been deployed and are scheduled to leave on Thursday.

German rescue operations “in general” remain suspended due to security concerns, the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) told CNN on Sunday.

However, it added that last night the agency’s paramedics and technical equipment had supported Turkish teams in their efforts to get an 88-year-old woman out from under the rubble.

THW told CNN that the team would remain in Turkey “until search and rescue efforts are ended by Turkish officials.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Sunday that it was the first group to send a team to provide mental health support to earthquake victims in Syrian shelters.

The group’s Psychosocial Support Team arranged events and activities for those in the shelters, including games for children.

The team also provided relief and stress management activities for 21 volunteers working at the association’s branch in Syria. 

The team of Palestinians along with local volunteers are also providing mental health services to about 300 children and their families in shelters and hospitals, who are suffering from severe trauma and depression as a result of the earthquake.

Israeli search-and-rescue group United Hatzalah is leaving Turkey after six days on the ground due to a “significant security threat” targeting the group, it announced Sunday.

United Hatzalah chief executive Eli Pollack and vice president of operations Dov Maisel said in a statement they had “received intelligence of a concrete and immediate threat on the Israeli delegation and we have to put the security of our personnel first.”

“We knew that there was a certain level of risk in sending our team to this area of Turkey, which is close to the Syrian border but we took the necessary steps in order to mitigate the threat for the sake of our lifesaving mission,” Maisel said. 

The decision came following a “a joint situational assessment with the heads of the [Israel Defense Forces] Home Front Command and Search and Rescue Units which took place on Saturday night,” they said. 

Due to the speed of the group’s departure and “lack of available planes,” Miriam Adelson – the widow of the late American Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson - donated her private jet to fly the team back to Israel on Sunday. 

“We are extremely proud of what our team has accomplished in just a few days, assisting in the rescue of 15 individuals in cooperation with the IDF Home Front Command, Israel’s Search and Rescue units, local rescue forces, and the Turkish Red Cross,” Maisel said. “I want to thank Dr. Adelson for assisting us in bringing our people back quickly and safely.”

A second Israeli aid group, IsraAid, continues to operate in Turkey. 

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces team in Turkey to see whether it is also departing.

More than 2,000 people have been discharged from hospitals in the Turkish city of Istanbul following treatment for injuries suffered in Monday’s powerful earthquake, Turkish state broadcaster TRT Haber reported on Sunday.

Thousands of injured people from the 10 earthquake-hit provinces in southern Turkey have been brought to Istanbul by military aircraft from the Turkish Armed Forces and ambulance aircraft from the Ministry of Health.

According to TRT Haber, 2,193 out of the 3,405 people brought to the city have been discharged, while treatment continues for 1,212.

Once in Istanbul, authorities have been transferring the injured to public, private and university hospitals in the city.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani is seen at the opening session of the Arab League in Tunisia on March 31, 2019.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad is en route to Istanbul from Doha to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a source familiar with the visit told CNN on Sunday.

Sheikh Tamim is the first leader to make an official visit to the country since the devastating earthquake struck southern Turkey on February 6.

Qatar said it was operating relief flights to Turkey to transport search and rescue teams, along with vehicles, a field hospital, tents and other supplies, Qatar’s state news agency QNA reported.