As efforts to seek and rescue survivors from the wreckage to join the international emergency response in Turkey and Syria ramp up, a Palestinian humanitarian team is joining the operation.
On Thursday, before boarding a bus at the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ramallah, 73 rescuers, led by the Palestinian International Cooperation Agency (PICA), put softshell jackets bearing the logo of their organization into red duffle bags.
The team will depart for Jordan, where it will be divided equally into two groups that will fly to southwest Syria and southern Turkey, respectively.
The head of PICA, Emad Zuhairi, stated that despite the rising requirements at home, his team was compelled to answer the need for assistance.
Zuhairi told Daily Mark, “We feel for the suffering of others because we are suffering.
Rescuers from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the Ministry of Health, and the Palestinian Civil Defence were part of the squad.
PICA was founded in 2016 and has since taken part in numerous rescue missions abroad, most recently in Pakistan after disastrous floods.
Its mission is planned to last 10 days, although it may need to be extended.
Since the initial early-morning quake on Monday, aftershocks have been shaking the Anatolian Peninsula while rescue efforts were underway, posing a threat to bring down damaged structures as well as the growing mountains of rubble.
According to Zuhairi, his team was aware of the numerous challenges that would face such a project. The occupying power’s restrictions on the free movement of persons and products are added to this, he continued.
Palestinian rescue teams must coordinate with the Israeli authorities since Israel controls border crossings into and out of the occupied West Bank.
He remarked, “We would have loved to bring some big equipment with us, but sadly, this is not possible. Instead, each member of the squad will carry a kit that solely contains necessities.
The Palestinian Civil Defence, according to Brigadier Odeh Yunis, is deploying 32 members of its ranks to deal with the “catastrophe.”
According to Yunis, their major tasks were to rescue persons trapped beneath the debris and treat the injured.
Following the magnitude-3.5 earthquake that was registered in the Palestinian Territories, his agency was also preparing a response for probable local earthquakes.
We don’t have direct boundaries with the outside world because of Israeli occupation, he remarked. “We are coordinating a reaction in case of a major emergency with our colleagues from the European Union and in the region.”
