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Arabs in Israel prepare relief aid to quake victims in Turkiye, Syria

February 6, 2023 at 2:20 pm

An aerial view of debris of a collapsed building after 7.7 magnitude earthquake hits Hatay, Turkiye on February 06, 2023. [Murat Şengül – Anadolu Agency ]

Arab citizens in Israel have established an emergency room to provide relief aid to people affected by a powerful earthquake that struck Turkiye and Syria on Monday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

“We have communicated with official institutions in Turkiye to provide urgent aid,” Ghazi Issa, the Director of the Association of Relief in the 1948 Lands, told Anadolu.

“We are preparing to send a delegation to follow the situation closely as well as dispatching medics to set up a field hospital on the Turkish-Syria border,” he added.

Issa said his organisation already has teams dispatched inside Syria to provide help to those affected by the quake.

“We have also launched a fund-raising campaign to provide help to those affected,” he added.

According to Issa, his organisation will start distributing tents and heating tools to those affected by the quake inside Turkiye within hours.

A 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck south-eastern Turkiye early Monday, killing at least 1,014 people and injuring 5,385 others, according to the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).

At least 592 people were also killed and hundreds injured in Syria from the quake, according to figures by the Syrian regime’s Health Ministry and Syrian Civil Defence.

AFAD said the quake struck at 4.17 a.m. (0117GMT) and was centred in the Pazarcik district in Turkiye’s southern province of Kahramanmaras.

Later on Monday, a new 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkiye which, this time, was centred in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras, AFAD said.

READ: Hundreds killed as 7.4 magnitude earthquake hits Turkiye, Syria