The Turkish authorities have begun to build a temporary residence area in the Nordag and Islahiyah areas in Gaziantep, which were affected by the earthquake. The area will accommodate 19,000 people and will consist of 3,280 housing units.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) also announced the departure of a ship from Italy carrying the first batch of 600 mobile homes out of more than a thousand allocated by the alliance to contribute to housing about 4 thousand people.
This comes after the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Authority announced the cessation of efforts to search for neighborhoods under the rubble in most states, with the exception of Kahramanmaraş and Hatay, the most affected, and the death toll from the earthquake rose to 41,020 people.
Visit Blinken
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Turkey on his first visit since taking office to see the rescue efforts, and announced an additional $100 million in aid for the earthquake victims.
Blinken said he was very sad to see the devastation caused by the earthquakes in Turkey, noting his country's commitment to do everything it can to help with relief and recovery efforts.
He added, "When we see the extent of the damage, the number of buildings, the number of apartments, and the number of houses that have been destroyed, we realize the need to make a massive effort for reconstruction, and we are committed to making this effort."
"We are adding $100 million to provide assistance to those who need it most," he added.
Blinken, with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, inspected, during a helicopter tour, the situation in the affected cities, and later today, Monday, he will head to Ankara, where he will discuss with his Turkish counterpart the support provided by Washington to those affected by the earthquake.
Regarding the situation in Syria, the US Secretary of State said that the organizations' delivery of aid to northwestern Syria faces several challenges, noting that there are attempts by Russia and other countries not to provide other crossing points.
Starting from the day after the earthquake, which also struck Syria, the United States deployed a number of search and rescue teams that included about 200 personnel, and released a batch of $85 million in humanitarian aid.
Washington also provided "Black Hawk" and "Chinook" helicopters to transport supplies.
It is noteworthy that a strong earthquake measuring 7.7 degrees on the Richter scale struck southern Turkey and parts of Syria at dawn on February 6, followed by another earthquake hours later with a magnitude of 7.6 and hundreds of violent aftershocks, which left huge losses of lives and property in the two countries.