The United Nations decried Sunday the failure to ship desperately needed aid to war-torn regions of Syria, while warning the death toll of more than 33,000 from the earthquake that also struck Turkey is set to rise far higher.

A UN convoy with supplies for northwest Syria arrived via Turkey, but the agency's relief chief Martin Griffiths said much more was needed for millions whose homes were destroyed.

"We have so far failed the people in northwest Syria. They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn't arrived," Griffiths said on Twitter.

Assessing damage in southern Turkey on Saturday, when the toll stood at 28,000, Griffiths said he expected the figure to "double or more" as chances of finding survivors fade with every passing day.

Supplies have been slow to arrive in Syria, where years of conflict have ravaged the healthcare system, and parts of the country remain under the control of rebels battling the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which is under Western sanctions.

But a 10-truck UN convoy crossed into northwest Syria via the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, according to an AFP correspondent, carrying shelter kits, plastic sheeting, rope, blankets, mattresses and carpets.

Bab al-Hawa is the only point for international aid to reach people in rebel-held areas of Syria after nearly 12 years of civil war, after other crossings were closed under pressure from China and Russia.

The head of the World Health Organization met Assad in Damascus on Sunday and said the Syrian leader had voiced readiness for more border crossings to help bring aid into the rebel-held northwest.

"He was open to considering additional cross-border access points for this emergency," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

– Conflict, Covid, cholera, quake –

"The compounding crises of conflict, Covid, cholera, economic decline and now the earthquake have taken an unbearable toll," Tedros said a day after visiting Aleppo.

He added that he was "waiting to move across lines to the northwest, where we've been told the impact is even worse".

But while Damascus had given the all-clear for cross-line aid convoys to go ahead from government areas, Tedros said the WHO was still waiting for a green light from rebel-held areas before going in.

Assad looked forward to further "efficient cooperation" with the UN agency to improve the shortage in supplies, equipment and medicines, his presidency said.

He had also thanked the United Arab Emirates for providing "huge relief and humanitarian aid", with pledges of tens of millions of dollars.

But in Turkey security concerns prompted the suspension of some rescue operations, and dozens of people have been arrested for looting or trying to defraud victims in the aftermath of the quake, according to state media.

An Israeli emergency relief organisation said Sunday it had suspended its earthquake rescue operation in Turkey and returned home because of a "significant" security threat to its staff.

– Miraculous tales –

Miraculous tales of survival have still emerged, though experts caution that hopes for finding people alive in the devastation dim with each passing day.

Almost 160 hours after the quake, several more people were rescued, including an eight-year-old boy in Gaziantep and a 63-year-old woman in Hatay, state media reported.

Turkey's disaster agency said more than 32,000 people from Turkish organisations are working on search-and-rescue efforts, along with 8,294 international rescuers.

But in many areas, rescue teams said they lacked sensors and advanced search equipment, leaving them reduced to carefully digging through the rubble with shovels or only their hands.

"If we had this kind of equipment, we would have saved hundreds of lives, if not more," said Alaa Moubarak, head of civil defence in Jableh, northwest Syria.

– Anger grows –

Syria's transport ministry said 62 aid planes had landed in Syria this week with more on the way from Saudi Arabia.

Jordan's foreign ministry announced the country's air force had flown the first two planeloads of 480 UN tents to Syria and Turkey "out of 10,000 tents that will be transported" to the two countries.

After days of grief and anguish, anger in Turkey has been growing over the poor quality of buildings as well as the government's response to the country's worst disaster in nearly a century.

A total of 12,141 buildings were officially either destroyed or seriously damaged in Turkey.

Three people were put behind bars by Sunday and seven more have been detained — including two developers who were trying to relocate to the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

Officials and medics said 29,605 people had died in Turkey and 3,581 in Syria from Monday's 7.8-magnitude quake, bringing the confirmed total to 33,186.

Race to identify Turkey quake victims
Kahramanmaras, Turkey (AFP) Feb 12, 2023 –

Tuba Yolcu is desperate for news of her missing aunt and scours a sports hall where victims of a powerful earthquake that hit her hometown in Turkey lie in body bags.

"We hear (the authorities) will no longer keep the bodies waiting after a certain period of time, they say they will take them and bury them," she said.

"God willing we will find her," Yolcu said, with worry etched on her face.

Monday's 7.8-magnitude tremor struck Kahramanmaras in the country's southeast, unleashing catastrophe in the region and Syria, killing at least 28,000 people.

Anguished families flock to sports halls, hospital morgues or cemeteries in the severely hit city — where bodies are piling up — in a bid to find their missing relatives.

"Every unidentified body will eventually be returned to their family," a prosecutor said, trying to soothe the families.

"Don't worry, blood samples are taken from each and every missing body," he assured.

Families — who cannot reach their loved ones during the rescue work — check one by one bodies either in bags or wrapped in blankets.

"We show the faces to their immediate relatives," a crime scene investigator in a hazmat suit told AFP at a large grave outside the city.

Funeral cars deliver a stream of bodies, burying them one by one.

"If the identity is unknown, we take fingerprints and tooth samples and compare them with their relatives," said the investigator, who carries a camera around his neck.

About 2,000 bodies have been identified at the cemetery, which is filled with freshly dug graves.

– 'Let's go back' –

Next to the wooden headstones at the makeshift cemetery, where some are wrapped by scarves, people mourn their relatives.

One woman sits near the grave, unable to stop crying.

Missing bodies are stored lower down, where investigators take pictures and notes.

Yusuf Sekman, from the religious affairs directorate, said the unidentified bodies are also divided according to where their collapsed building was located.

This allows relatives to "also look, based on the recovered body's address", he said.

"Their samples are taken, and noted down on body bags" to help with identification.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Friday he hoped the missing bodies would be identified and said the government was doing everything it could.

"We upload unidentified patients' photographs to a special software in order to match," Koca said.

Unfortunately for Yolcu, her aunt was not at the sports hall since an official said all the bodies have been identified.

When the quake struck, her aunt was in the city but Yolcu was in a village.

"We cannot find her body," she said, adding that she won't stop looking.

As she stepped out of the hall, she turned back to her husband and said: "Let's return to the rubble", hoping that perhaps her aunt had yet to be pulled out.