Turkey-Syria updates: Death toll from earthquakes passes 45,000

Death toll from the Turkey-Syria earthquakes passes 45,000.

Total number of people killed in Turkey has hit 39,672. The Syrian government and the UN say more than 5,800 people have died there.

• ICRC says aid blocked from DamascusThe International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has appealed for aid deliveries from Damascus to be allowed to pass through to the largely opposition-held northwest of the country.“We tried to get into Idlib through crossline and so far we’ve been blocked, unfortunately,” Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC regional director for the near and middle east, said on Friday.“So, I don’t have first-hand information on the roads and access but we’re ready to get in but we are so far blocked to do crossline, hoping that this could change soon,” he said in Geneva, according to a United Nations news briefing.People walk past damaged buildings, in the aftermath of an earthquake, in rebel-held town of Jandaris, Syria [Khalil Ashawi/Reuters]
• 2h ago (04:28 GMT)Earthquakes tore 300km rupture through Earth’s surface: ReutersReuters news agency has documented how the ground in Turkey and northern Syria was cracked open and dragged in different directions after the huge 7.8-magnitude earthquake on February 6 and its aftershocks.Land on either side of the ruptures moved in opposite directions, settling up to 7 metres (23 ft) from its starting point in some locations, Reuters reports, citing data provided by Chris Milliner of the California Institute of Technology.The main quake had a long rupture with displacements of up to 7 metres (23 ft). The shorter rupture from the 7.5-magnitude aftershock saw land displaced up to 5 metres (16 ft) in places, according to Reuters.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-
• 3h ago (03:24 GMT)Bodies of more than 1,500 Syrians repatriated from TurkeyThe bodies of at least 1,522 Syrians have been brought back to Syria from Turkey for burial, an official at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing said.Syrian survivors of the earthquake have also begun crossing back from Turkey. Some 1,795 Syrians crossed from Turkey into Syria on Wednesday, the first day after Turkey agreed to allow Syrian refugees affected by the earthquake to return to their country temporarily without losing their protected status in Turkey, the border-crossing official said.The decision allows Syrian holders of Turkish temporary protection cards residing in earthquake-damaged areas to cross into Syria without having to obtain a travel permit from Turkish authorities.Normally, Turkey would consider Syrians holding protected status who crossed into Syria without a permit to have relinquished their status as asylum seekers and they would be prevented from re-entering Turkey for five years.Syrian residents of Turkey’s Hatay city wait to cross the Turkish-Syrian border after they were affected by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the region nearly two weeks ago, at Cilvegozu border gate on February 17, 2023 [Yasin Akgul/AFP] 
• 3h ago (03:06 GMT)UN trucks bringing crucial aid to northwest SyriaA total of 178 trucks carrying aid from Turkey into northwest Syria have crossed the border since February 9, the UN has said.Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said on Friday the trucks carried a “multitude” of items from six UN agencies – including tents, mattresses, blankets, winter clothes, cholera-testing kits, essential medicines and food from the World Food Program.UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said that, according to recent assessments in Syria’s northwest, 50,000 households need tents or emergency shelter and at least 88,000 households need mattresses, thermal blankets and clothing. In addition, the UN’s partners say hospitals and medical centres “are overstretched and under-resourced”, he said.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-
• 4h ago (02:53 GMT)Turkey caring for more than 1,500 children separated from familiesTurkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said the state was caring for 1,589 children who were separated from their families following the deadly earthquakes, including 247 who have not yet been identified.Oktay said 953 children had been reunited with their families. The vice president also said search and rescue teams were working at fewer than 200 sites, with Hatay province accounting for the largest number.Rescue teams in Hatay recovered a 45-year-old man alive on Friday after he spent 278 hours under rubble.

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