ISTANBUL: Many Istanbul residents spent the night outdoors, too fearful to return to their homes, following a strong earthquake and over 180 aftershocks.
The magnitude 6.2 quake tremor that struck Wednesday deeply impacted the city of 16 million residents, leaving many inhabitants shaken and wary of a possible more destructive tremor. There were no reports of serious damage but the temblor, the strongest felt in Istanbul in recent years, prompted widespread panic and scores of injuries.
The earthquake had a shallow depth of 10 kilometers, according to the United States Geological Survey, with its epicenter about 40 kilometers southwest of Istanbul, in the Sea of Marmara. It was felt in several neighboring provinces.
At least 236 people were treated for injuries they suffered while trying to jump from buildings or for panic attacks. Most of the injuries were in Istanbul, where residents remain on edge because the city is considered at high risk for a major quake.
In fear of a stronger earthquake that could demolish homes, residents sought refuge by sleeping in their cars or setting up tents in parks and other open spaces. Many lit campfires to keep warm after the temperature dipped.
Turkiye is crossed by two major fault lines, and earthquakes are frequent.
For many, the memory of a devastating earthquake that struck 11 southern and southeastern provinces two years ago, remains vivid.
The 7.8-magnitude earthquake on February 6, 2023, claimed more than 53,000 lives and destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings. Another 6,000 people were killed in the northern parts of neighboring Syria.
The Turkish disaster and emergency management agency, AFAD, said Wednesday’s earthquake was followed by 184 aftershocks – seven of them of a magnitude 4 or stronger.
Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum stated that authorities had received 378 reports of structural damage in various buildings. At least 12 buildings had been evacuated as a precautionary measure, he said.
Only one building – a derelict, long-abandoned structure in the city’s historic Fatih district – collapsed.
Germany’s GFZ seismological research institute said the earthquake was the strongest in the area in over 25 years and extended the fault zone toward Istanbul.
The institute said the development presented two possibilities: either the region could experience a temporary decrease in seismic activity, or the stress caused by the earthquake could lead to a more destructive tremor.
“The area beneath the Sea of Marmara south of Istanbul is the only area of the entire plate boundary that hasn’t generated a strong earthquake in over 250 years and is therefore overdue for an earthquake with a magnitude of up to 7.4,” the seismology center said.
Istanbul residents spend the night outdoors after a strong earthquake and aftershocks
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Istanbul residents spend the night outdoors after a strong earthquake and aftershocks
- The magnitude 6.2 quake tremor that struck Wednesday deeply impacted the city of 16 million residents
- There were no reports of serious damage but the temblor prompted widespread panic and scores of injuries
Major Palestinian hospital in Gaza out of service due to Israeli attacks
- Gaza European Hospital is the only remaining facility providing medical follow-up for cancer patients
- Intensive care units for premature infants lack incubators, respirators and oxygen supplies, and are at risk of shutdown
LONDON: A major Palestinian hospital in the southern Gaza announced it was out of service on Thursday after Israeli attacks damaged its facilities.
The Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis has sustained extensive damage due to Israeli bombings, impacting the building’s sewage network and internal medical departments, and destroying the roads that lead to it.
The hospital has 28 intensive care beds, 12 incubators, 260 hospital beds, 25 emergency beds and 60 oncology beds; however, all are out of service, Wafa news agency reported.
The Gaza European Hospital is the only remaining facility providing medical follow-up for cancer patients in the Gaza Strip, after Israeli forces destroyed the Turkish Friendship Hospital in March.
Medical sources told Wafa that the hospital can no longer provide specialized services such as neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, a cardiac catheterization center, cardiovascular surgery and ophthalmology.
Intensive care units for premature infants in the hospital lack incubators, respirators and oxygen supplies, and are at risk of complete shutdown due to a severe diesel shortage to operate power generators. The hospital warned that premature infants in incubators are at risk of malnutrition, medical complications and even death, Wafa reported.
The hospital urged humanitarian and health organizations to urgently provide essential medical supplies, fuel, power generators and nutritional support.
Since March, Israel has prohibited the entry of humanitarian aid and relief into the Gaza Strip as it resumed military actions in the area. Reports indicate that 57 children have died from malnutrition-related causes since then.
Additionally, UN-backed food security experts have warned that hunger and malnutrition have sharply intensified since the onset of the Israeli aid relief blockade in March.
HRW: Israel’s Gaza blockade has become ‘tool of extermination’
- “Israel’s blockade has transcended military tactics to become a tool of extermination,” HRW interim executive director Federico Borello said
- Israel said the pressure aimed to force Hamas to free hostages in Gaza
BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Israel’s total blockade of the Gaza Strip, in place since March 2, has become “a tool of extermination.”
“Israel’s blockade has transcended military tactics to become a tool of extermination,” HRW interim executive director Federico Borello said in a statement.
Israel blocked all aid from entering Gaza on March 2, before resuming its military operations on March 18 after talks to prolong a six-week ceasefire collapsed.
Israel said the pressure aimed to force Hamas to free hostages in Gaza, most of them held since the Palestinian Islamist movement’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack.
Israel denies that a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Gaza.
In its statement, HRW said that “the Israeli government’s plan to demolish what remains of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure and concentrate the Palestinian population into a tiny area would amount to an abhorrent escalation of its ongoing crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and acts of genocide.”
For weeks, humanitarian organizations and the United Nations have warned that supplies of everything from food and clean water to fuel and medicine are reaching new lows.
Borello also criticized “plans to squeeze Gaza’s 2 million people into an even tinier area while making the rest of the land uninhabitable.”
The UN estimates that 70 percent of Gaza is now either an Israeli-declared no-go zone or under evacuation order.
UNICEF says artillery fire leaves Sudan hospital patients without water
- “Yesterday, a UNICEF-supported water truck in the Saudi hospital compound, El-Fasher, was destroyed by artillery fire,” the UN agency said
- The conflict has effectively split the country in two
KHARTOUM: Around 1,000 critically ill patients in Sudan’s Darfur region are nearly without drinking water after artillery fire destroyed a water tanker at a hospital, UNICEF said on Wednesday.
The tanker was stationed at the Saudi hospital, one of the few still operational in El-Fasher, a city in North Darfur with a population of around two million.
The city is the only state capital among Darfur’s five states to remain outside the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), but has been under siege by the paramilitary group since May 2024.
“Yesterday, a UNICEF-supported water truck in the Saudi hospital compound, El-Fasher, was destroyed by artillery fire, disrupting access to safe water for an estimated 1,000 severely ill patients,” the UN agency said.
“UNICEF continues to call on all parties to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law and end all attacks on or near critical civilian infrastructure,” it added.
The war in Sudan, now in its third year, has pitted the armed forces led by General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against the RSF headed by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The conflict has effectively split the country in two, with the army controlling the north, east, and center, while the RSF dominates nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.
On Wednesday, the army accused the RSF in a statement of targeting populated areas of the city.
In April, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) estimated that 70 to 80 percent of health facilities in conflict-affected areas in Sudan were out of service, citing El-Fasher as a prime example.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 13 million, including 5.6 million in Darfur alone.
According to the UN, the war has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Both sides in the conflict have been accused of war crimes, including deliberately targeting civilians, indiscriminately bombing residential areas and obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid.
UN says ‘alarmed’ by escalating violence in Libya’s Tripoli
- IOM called "for an immediate cessation of hostilities to ensure the safety and wellbeing of civilians
- The IOM said it was "alarmed by the recent escalation of violence in Tripoli"
GENEVA: The United Nations voiced alarm Thursday at escalating violence in Tripoli, warning of a “severe risk of mass displacement and danger to civilians.”
The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) called “for an immediate cessation of hostilities to ensure the safety and wellbeing of civilians in accordance with International Humanitarian Law.”
Their statement came amid fresh unrest in Libya, which has struggled to recover from the NATO-backed 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi.
The country remains split between a UN-recognized government in Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east, controlled by the Haftar family.
Fresh gunbattles erupted Wednesday in the Libyan capital between two powerful armed groups, a security official said, a day after the authorities had declared the fighting over.
The IOM said it was “alarmed by the recent escalation of violence in Tripoli.”
It added: “We are also concerned by the mobilization of armed groups in surrounding regions. There is a severe risk of mass displacement and danger to civilians.”
On Tuesday, the Tripoli-based government said the fighting had been controlled and announced a ceasefire, even as shots were still fired in western parts of Tripoli.
“We welcome reports of a ceasefire and urge that it be fully and unconditionally respected to safeguard the rights and dignity of all those in the affected areas,” the IOM said.
“IOM continues working with partners to support humanitarian access to all vulnerable groups, including migrants,” it added.
“We are monitoring possible displacement trends and stand ready to support should needs arise.”
South Sudan medical system collapsing as clashes rage: MSF
- “We are talking about a major conflict that is taking place over multiple fronts,” said MSF’s operations manager Bakri Abubakr
- Abubakr labelled the subsequent displacement a “major crisis“
NAIROBI: Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Thursday that attacks on medical facilities were rising in South Sudan as “major conflict” caused mass displacement, leaving under-resourced health centers struggling to cope.
South Sudan has long grappled with insecurity and political instability, but tensions between President Salva Kiir and his rival, Vice President Riek Machar, have spilt over into clashes between their forces around the country in recent months.
International attention has focused on fighting in Upper Nile State, but MSF warned that clashes were also occurring in the states of Jonglei, Unity, and Western Central Equatorial.
“We are talking about a major conflict that is taking place over multiple fronts and multiple locations,” said MSF’s operations manager Bakri Abubakr.
Abubakr labelled the subsequent displacement a “major crisis” — with roughly 60,000 people displaced in Upper Nile State and 50,000 in Jonglei alone.
MSF teams witnessed entire villages displaced, he said, saying “hospitals, health facilities and community facilities have been abandoned as well from their staff.”
“We are witnessing a collapsing health system in the country,” he said, adding that only half of South Sudan’s medical facilities were operational even before the latest fighting.
Roughly 80 percent of the country’s health care system is funded by international bodies, MSF said, with Juba contributing just 1.3 percent from its budget.
“We see a rise of attacks on health care facilities, medical personnel, civilian population,” said MSF’s Abdalla Hussein, including attacks on White River Nile barges carrying vital supplies and looting of remote outposts.
The UN says eight medical facilities have been struck this year, and MSF believes the figure could be even higher.
MSF’s head of mission Zakariya Mwatia described rising numbers of wounded arriving at Malakal city after weeks sleeping rough and traveling through the bush, their health hanging by a thread — with staff unable to save them.
“We are yet to see the worst,” he added.
