Published: 10 February 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
The devastating earthquake in Türkiye and Syria has implications for both the local community and regional geopolitics.
Scenes of carnage dominated Middle East news this week with 15,400 reported dead and hundreds of thousands injured or homeless as a result of the double earthquake which struck southern Türkiye and northern Syria.
Israel was among the countries in the region to experience aftershocks following the first quake, which registered 7.8 on the Richter scale, and again on Wednesday. An additional magnitude 7.5 quake hit Türkiye and Syria on Monday afternoon.
The leader of the tiny but ancient Jewish community of Antakya, Saul Cenudioğlu, and his wife Fortuna are among those missing. Their apartment building collapsed in the first of two quakes.
Antakya’s 100-year-old synagogue was among the thousands of buildings damaged in the earthquakes. Rabbi Mendy Chitrik was able to save the Torah scrolls from the synagogue, where the walls have cracked but the building has not collapsed.
Aid organisations are mobilising from around the world and Israel is among the countries that have stepped up quickly.
The Israeli military has sent a field hospital, hundreds of tons of equipment and 230 medical experts to southeastern Türkiye. Among the first on the scene were 150 Home Front Command soldiers who are searching for survivors under the rubble.
Several delegations of Israeli medics from emergency organisations have also headed to Türkiye to assist local authorities in treating victims of the earthquake.
They are part of an international effort led by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) which brings together 15 leading aid charities at times of crisis overseas. Fourteen of these are responding in Türkiye and Syria including British Red Cross, ActionAid and Save the Children.
Perhaps the most unlikely moment of this week’s coverage was video captured by the Jerusalem Post which showed a plane sporting Israeli flags and an Iranian military aircraft side by side on the tarmac in Türkiye. Both planes carried aid workers and supplies, both nations ready to work to support the earthquake victims without regard to the usual tensions between them.
While at least 45 other countries have offered to assist Türkiye, where the majority of the damage occurred, relatively few have publicly committed to aiding Syria.
Israel says it has offered to admit Syrians to Israeli hospitals in the country's north following a request for aid via Russia, but Syrian media has denied reaching out to Israel, which it considers an enemy state.
The aftershocks in Israel did not cause any damage but they did raise alarm about the danger of future seismic activity. Israeli geologists are warning that Israel is overdue for a “disastrous earthquake” and the country is dramatically underprepared. Schools and hospitals built before the 1980s would likely be wiped out, said Dr. Ariel Heimann, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and a former senior researcher at the Geological Survey of Israel.
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Head of tiny Jewish community in Türkiye’s Antakya feared dead; Torah scrolls saved (Times of Israel)
With 15 cargo planes, IDF begins setting up field hospital in quake-stricken Turkey (Times of Israel)
Syria Denies Claim That It Requested Israeli Earthquake Aid (Haaretz)
Israeli aid plane, Iranian military plane side-by-side in Türkiye (Jerusalem Post)
Massive quake in Israel ‘only a matter of time,’ experts warn (Haaretz)
Photo: IDF search and rescue teams begin operating in a bid to find survivors in Türkiye (Israeli Foreign Ministry)
