The Lebanese rescue team returning from Syria to Lebanon on Feb. 11, 2022. (Credit:@LebarmyOfficial/Twitter)
BEIRUT — Lebanese aid to people affected by the deadly earthquake that devastated Turkey and Syria is in full swing. While Lebanese rescue workers are still in Turkey and Syria, where they have rescued several people trapped in the rubble in recent days, one of the delegations sent this week to Syria returned to Lebanon on Saturday, "after completing its mission," the Lebanese Army said.
The death toll from Monday's earthquake now stands at more than 25,000 people in both countries as search operations for victims continue.
"The Lebanese search and rescue unit that left for Syria returned to Lebanon after completing its mission. It included members of the Military Engineers, the Lebanese Red Cross, the Civil Defense and the Beirut Fire Department," the Lebanese Army said in a tweet on Saturday.
وصلت إلى لبنان بعثة البحث والإنقاذ اللبنانية قادمة من سوريا، وتضم عناصر من فوج الهندسة في الجيش اللبناني ومن الصليب الأحمر والدفاع المدني وفوج إطفاء بيروت، وذلك بعد انتهاء المهمّة التي كُلفت بها.#الجيش_اللبناني #LebaneseArmy pic.twitter.com/T2BbqJEBxz
— الجيش اللبناني (@LebarmyOfficial) February 11, 2023
When contacted by L'Orient-Today, an army spokesman said that all the soldiers sent to Syria and Turkey have returned to Lebanon. "No other delegation will be sent," he added.
A spokesman for the Civil Defense told L'Orient Today that 20 of its volunteers who went to Syria returned to Lebanon Saturday evening, while the volunteers who had been sent to Turkey returned on Friday.
On Saturday morning, another delegation of rescue workers belonging to the Muslim Scouts of Lebanon flew to Turkey, the state-run National News Agency reported.
Caretaker Environment Minister Nasser Yassin was present at their departure from Beirut airport, as was protest movement MP Ibrahim Mneimneh.
"This measure is a response to the humanitarian duty that all Lebanese people adhere to, towards our relatives and brothers in Syria and Turkey," Yassin said, adding, "Lebanon will continue to send delegations of relief workers to support the affected countries."
Helping those who have lost everything
Earlier in the week, other groups had left, notably from South Lebanon, to Syria.
Relief workers affiliated with a scout organization linked to the Amal Movement of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, the Youth Movement for Development and Peace (YMPD) and the association Social Front are notably still on site, L'Orient Today's correspondent in the south reported.
"We have a lot of things to do," confided Ali Daher, president of the YMPD, to L'Orient-Le Jour, specifying that in recent hours, they have only extracted corpses from the rubble, after having found survivors earlier this week.
"The main problem now is to help the people who are alive, who have lost everything and need everything," he added.
Rescue workers from the Alfa Association, who spent a few days in the devastated cities of Syria under the control of the regime, have returned to Lebanon.
On Friday, Lebanese Civil Defense volunteers working in Jableh, south of Latakia in Syria, pulled a mother and her son out of the rubble of a building alive. And by Wednesday, Lebanese rescue workers had saved a pregnant woman and her daughter in Turkey.
Maher al-Ajouz, Lebanese fire chief, told L'Orient Today that another family trapped under a collapsed building in Turkey had also been rescued.
Additional reporting by Muntasser Abdallah