NEW YORK (VINnews) — Israeli search and rescue teams continued to work feverishly against the clock over the weekend in an attempt to find more survivors of the deadly earthquake in Turkey. The teams have succeeded in saving 19 Turkish citizens, with the last such successful operation occurring more than 120 hours after the earthquake, when IDF search and rescue specialists on Friday evening retrieved a 9-year-old child from underneath a collapsed building in the southeast of the country.
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According to the Israeli military, the heroic rescue of a Turkish citizen from the ruins in Kahramanmaras was the Home Front Command teams’ 19th such operation. The child, Ridvan, was identified by the Israeli army as the sibling of Romisa, a 14-year-old girl who had been recovered earlier in the week by Israeli search and rescue personnel along with their father Mohammed.
Sometime after the earthquake, their mother’s lifeless body was discovered. A pediatrician from the Israeli field hospital is now treating Ridvan. The child was confirmed to be alive, but his condition was not immediately clear.
https://twitter.com/FrilingYonat/status/1623656122451169281
Earlier today, the combined @Israel rescue team, @IDF Home Front Command, Search and Rescue Units, and our team located and rescued a 7-year-old girl from a collapsed building in #Kahramanmaras after locating her via thermal cameras from our drone. #Turkey #TurkeyQuake pic.twitter.com/FLBshPW6zm
— United Hatzalah (@UnitedHatzalah) February 9, 2023
IDF soldiers in Turkey rescued a 7-year-old girl from the ruins of a building. As a token of appreciation, the girl's uncle gave them sentimental coins that were passed down through generations in their family.https://t.co/82dxW6G65R pic.twitter.com/rLNZENH7wr
— Documenting Israel (@israelmuse) February 9, 2023
Additionally, Israeli rescuers on Friday morning pulled a 10-year-old boy from a burning structure in the same city. Even while there were a number of noteworthy rescues in the area on Friday, they were getting fewer and farther between, as the death toll in Turkey alone passed 24,000 over the weekend, with over 4,000 more casualties in Syria.
Despite this, rescue crews on Saturday pulled out more survivors, including entire families, from toppled buildings in various regions.
Dramatic rescues were being broadcast on Turkish television, including the rescue of the Narli family in central Kahramanmaras 133 hours after the quake struck early Monday. First, 12-year-old Nehir Naz Narli was saved, then both of her parents.
That followed the rescue earlier in the day of a family of five from a mound of debris in the hard-hit town of Nurdagi, in Gaziantep province, TV network HaberTurk reported. Rescuers cheered and chanted, “God is Great!” as the last family member, the father, was lifted to safety.
Even though experts say trapped people can live for a week or more, the odds of finding more survivors were quickly waning amid freezing temperatures in Southern Turkey. Rescuers were shifting to thermal cameras to help identify life amid the rubble, a sign that any remaining survivors could be too weak to call for help.