World

Death toll keeps rising, search for trapped people continues in Türkiye after strong quakes

Published

1 year ago

07/02/2023

Update on Türkiye’s earthquakes:

— at least 1,762 killed, 12,068 wounded;

— at least 5,606 buildings destroyed;

— 6,445 rescued so far from the rubble;

— rescue mission continues to the night amid cold, rainy weather.

ANKARA, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) — The death toll is rising after Türkiye’s southern provinces were jolted by strong earthquakes on Monday with at least 1,762 people lost their lives, 12,068 others injured, according to Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).

A total of 5,606 buildings were damaged, and a least 6,445 people were rescued from the wreckages, the agency said, adding that the search for people trapped in toppled buildings continues.

A magnitude-7.7 earthquake struck Türkiye’s southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 a.m. local time (0117 GMT). It was followed by a magnitude-6.4 quake a few minutes later in the country’s southern province of Gaziantep and a magnitude-7.6 earthquake at 1:24 p.m. local time (1024 GMT) in the Kahramanmaras Province.

Residents ran out of their homes in their pajamas and t-shirts after the ground shook early Monday and have been waiting on the streets covered with ice and snow through the day.

Türkiye’s southern province of Hatay bordering Syria suffered the most loss of life in the earthquake with at least 520 casualties. Two hospital buildings in the Hatay province collapsed, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.

Rescue teams from the Turkish Red Crescent and AFAD were dispatched to the earthquake zone, while the Turkish security forces, search and rescue volunteers, and the rescue teams of several local administrations also participated in the efforts.

The Turkish Defense Ministry has set up an air corridor to facilitate search and rescue teams to reach the quake-affected zone.

Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said 3,500 soldiers participate in rescue operations. He noted that 17 aircraft are flying to the region from Istanbul, Izmir, and Ankara, carrying aid supplies.

AFAD President Yunus Sezer said nearly 15,000 rescue personnel and about 5,000 vehicles and construction equipment had been deployed in the region.

The search and rescue efforts are being hampered by a winter blizzard as the temperatures recorded below 10 degrees celsius in most of the affected provinces. The weather service was forecasted rain and sleet across southeastern Türkiye until Thursday.

Türkiye issued a level-4 alarm after the earthquake, which includes a call for international aid. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara received offers for help from some 45 countries in the aftermath of the quake.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said members of the alliance were mobilizing support for Türkiye. More than 20 countries have sent rescue teams and assistance to help rescue efforts of Türkiye.

An explosion occurred on a gas pipeline in Türkiye’s southern province of Hatay and natural gas flow to southern Gaziantep, Hatay and Kahramanmaras provinces was suspended as a precaution.

At the port of Iskenderun district in southern Hatay province, a fire broke out following the earthquake and emergency services intervened in the blaze.

In southern Gaziantep, walls and watch towers of an ancient castle, constructed as an observation point by the Hittite Empire, have been leveled, while other parts are largely destroyed by the earthquake.

Türkiye declared national mourning for a week, with the flags to be flown half-mast. The Turkish education ministry has announced that schools across the country will be closed for seven days until Feb. 13.

“Due to the earthquakes that took place in our country on Feb. 6, a national mourning period was declared for seven days,” said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “Turkish flag will be hoisted at half-mast until sunset on Sunday all around Türkiye, at all foreign representations.”

The country has often faced earthquakes due to its location at the crossroads of three different tectonic plates in Anatolia.

Monday’s earthquake is believed to be the strongest in Türkiye since the magnitude 7.9 eastern Erzincan province quake of 1939, which killed 33,000 people.

In 1999, a 7.4-magnitude quake hit northwestern Izmit province, around 90 km east of Istanbul, killing at least 17,500 people, including 1,000 living in Istanbul.

The Turkish authorities have introduced tighter building regulations, revised urban planning, and improved key public infrastructure amid a public awareness campaign following the 1999 quake.

Source(s): Xinhua

World

President Xi stresses China’s stance on Gaza conflict, Ukraine crisis

Published

2 hours ago

07/05/2024

Chinese President Xi Jinping re-emphasized China’s principled position on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Ukraine crisis when he met the press with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Monday in Paris.

He stressed that China supports the two-state solution to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East, and supports a peace conference to bring back Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table for the Ukraine crisis.

Noting that the prolonged tragedy of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a test for human conscience, Xi said the international community must act. He called on all parties to work for an immediate, comprehensive and sustainable ceasefire in Gaza.

He stressed that China supports the full membership of Palestine in the United Nations, supports restoring to Palestine its legitimate national rights and restarting the two-state solution, so as to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East.

On the Ukraine crisis, Xi said China is not a party to or a participant of the ongoing conflict. But instead of being an onlooker, China has been playing an important role for peace, Xi added. He said the special representative of the Chinese government on Eurasian affairs has started his third round of shuttle diplomacy to promote the political settlement of the crisis.

Xi stressed that China opposes attempts to use the Ukraine crisis to scapegoat or smear a third country or to stoke a “new Cold War.”

“History has proven time and again that, at the end of the day, conflicts can only be resolved through negotiation,” Xi said. He called on all parties to resume engagement and dialogue to build mutual trust, saying China supports holding, at a proper time, an international peace conference that is recognized by both Russia and Ukraine and ensures the equal participation of all parties and fair discussions on all peace plans.

China supports a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture in Europe, Xi said.

Source(s): CGTN

World

Gaza truce uncertain, Hamas to deliver ‘final response’ in two days

Published

1 day ago

06/05/2024

Prospects for a Gaza ceasefire appeared uncertain on Sunday as a Hamas delegation left Cairo.

A Palestinian source, who preferred not to mention his name, said the Hamas delegation, who departed Cairo on Sunday for consultations with the movement’s leadership in Doha, Qatar, will return with a “final response” to the Egyptian proposal two days later.

According to the source, during the two-day talks in Cairo, the Hamas delegation met with Egyptian security officials and addressed “all issues” that could hinder reaching an agreement on the Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange with Israel, confirming that “significant” consensus has been achieved between the delegation and the Egyptian mediators.

The Egyptian proposal consists of three stages, aimed at exchanging Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, taking necessary measures to reach a ceasefire, and restoring sustainable calm.

The first stage would span 40 days and bring out a temporary halt of military operations between the two sides, an exchange of hostages and prisoners, and the return of internally displaced civilians to their areas of residence in Gaza. It also includes facilitating the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid, relief materials and fuel into Gaza, as well as the equipment needed to remove rubble, establish camps for the displaced, and rehabilitate and operate hospitals, health centers and bakeries in the strip.

Also on Sunday, Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement that his movement is keen to reach a comprehensive agreement that ends the current conflict in Gaza and ensures a prisoner exchange with Israel. Meanwhile, he accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “inventing constant justifications to continue the aggression, expand the scope of the conflict, and sabotage mediation efforts.”

Israel has not officially commented on the proposal. The main point of contention between the two sides remains the duration of the truce, with Hamas demanding that Israel halt the conflict, while Israel insists on continuing until it deems Hamas defeated.

Despite intensive mediation efforts and international calls for a ceasefire, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday that Israel assesses the likelihood of reaching an agreement with Hamas as low, adding the order to launch an onslaught on Rafah, the enclave’s southernmost city, will be given “very soon.”

About 1.2 million people have been sheltering in Rafah, according to estimates by the United Nations, escaping Israeli bombardments in other areas as well as the famine-stricken northern Gaza.

World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain said in an NBC News interview broadcast on Sunday that based on the “horror” on the ground: “There is famine, full-blown famine, in the north, and it’s moving its way south.”

Also on Sunday, Israeli authorities raided a Jerusalem hotel room used by Al Jazeera as its office, an Israeli official and an Al Jazeera source told Reuters.

Netanyahu’s cabinet has agreed to shut down the network’s local operations for as long as the conflict in Gaza continues, saying it threatened national security.

Al Jazeera said the move was a “criminal action” and the accusation that the network threatened Israeli security was a “dangerous and ridiculous lie” that put its journalists at risk. It reserved the right to “pursue every legal step.”

Source(s): CGTN

World

UN report: Conflict could set Gaza development back four decades

Published

4 days ago

03/05/2024

The development of Gaza could face a retrogression by over four decades if the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict was to last for nine months, according to a UN report.

The report, issued on Thursday, reveals a joint study by the UN Development Programme and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), which warns of sharp decline in the Human Development Index (HDI), a summary measure of well-being, in the Gaza Strip and Palestine amid the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The study showed that after nine months of the conflict, the HDI for Gaza could fall to 0.551, setting back progress by 44 years. For Palestine, development could retrogress by more than 20 years – to earlier than 2004.

“This assessment projects that Gaza will be rendered fully dependent on external assistance on a scale not seen since 1948, as it will be left without a functional economy, or any means of production, self-sustainment, employment, or capacity for trade,” said ESCWA Executive Secretary Rola Dashti.

As the conflict approaches its seventh month, the poverty rate in Palestine has surged to 58.4 percent and its GDP has plunged by 26.9 percent, resulting in a loss of $7.1 billion from a 2023 no-war baseline, the UN report showed.

At least 34,596 Palestinians have been killed and 77,816 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, according to latest update by Palestine’s health ministry.

Hamas said on Thursday it is studying Israeli ceasefire proposals in a “positive spirit” and a delegation is set to visit Egypt soon for further talks, as Israel reiterates it will attack Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah regardless.

Meanwhile, Israel launched an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights on Thursday night against a military site near the Syrian capital of Damascus, injuring eight soldiers and causing material losses, the Syrian Defense Ministry said.

The targeted areas are known strongholds for elements of Hezbollah and Iranian-backed militias, according to the observatory in Syria.

This attack follows a reported decline in Israeli attacks over the past month, which the Syrian observatory’s director attributed to the strikes on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1.

Iran on Thursday announced sanctions on several American and British individuals and entities for supporting Israel in its war against Hamas. The sanctions include prohibiting accounts and transactions in the Iranian financial and banking systems, and blocking assets within the jurisdiction of Iran as well as visa issuance and entry to the Iranian territory.

Türkiye also announced the halt of all trade activities with Israel as of Thursday until the latter allows the flow of humanitarian aid to the region, said the Turkish trade ministry.

A Shiite militia in Iraq on Thursday claimed responsibility for a missile attack on three sites in the cities of Tel Aviv and Be’er Sheva in Israel “in solidarity with the people of Gaza,” and pledged to persist in targeting the “enemy’s strongholds.” The group has launched multiple attacks on Israeli and U.S. bases in the region since the Gaza conflict broke out.

Source(s): CGTN