stage and screen on al jazeera, the latest news as it breaks. bush policies are about a kilometer in that direction. you are you in military, it's good now with detailed coverage where israel has the palestinian economy on the verge of collapse or decade from around the world. this pro, death, expand the jewel, broader social movement, not just again, it's increasingly a different time, but also going to the continuing cost of living crisis. ah, hundreds are fear dead after a magnitude $7.00 earthquake rocked south eastern turkey and northern syria. ah,

i'm how much i'm doing this is alger alive from don't help. also coming up with the battle for buckman intensifies ukraine's president says russia is throwing more of its troops into the fight. votes are being counted in ecuador following a referendum. that aims to battle crime and tackle environmental problems. tens of thousands, flea their homes in the democratic republic of congo following an escalation and attacks by the m 23 armed group. ah, we begin with breaking news. dozens of people have died in turkey and syria. after a magnitude, $7.00, earthquake struck the southeastern region opposite chic. the epicenter. the trimmers were felt in several provinces around there, as well as syria and lebanon. rescuers are now frantically trying to search for survivors, is feared,

hundreds of people have lost their lives. trimmers reportedly lasted about a minute and hundreds of buildings have collapsed trappings, trapping many inside while they were sleeping. for more in this, i'm now joined by cinema casala, who's monitoring developments from istanbul sent him. what's the latest we're hearing from officials? well mom as, as a 10 cities have been affected by this, a very strong earthquake. we heard a among the governors stating that 7 to 6 people died in of the amman city. so in shall notify at 17 people die. then there are many others, dozens more of who have been a who died during this incident. many people are trapped. as you also have said, we are reading reports that a some people are being rescued, but they have family members are trapped under the rubble. so this is a very tough situation for to care. as the a 1st, a day lights come up,

the rescue workers will be able to work and more properly a but the situation is dire on the ground and the turkish officials mainly the turkish interior minister, said that true kit is on a level of 4 alert emergency alerts for the situation which requires international assistance, mainly from the neighboring and friendly countries. as the impact of this earthquake just across circuit has been a felt in at 10 cities and many buildings have been damaged by this earthquake. this is going to be a long work for the turkish rescue workers and before the turkish authorities who are trying to people trapped under these a rebel as turkish interior. ministers said that as citizens should be careful, they shouldn't drive their cars unless it is very necessary. you know, do not to interrupt a, the, a emergency workers and ambulance is being ed deployed to the area. this is a tough situation. as i said on it, the impacts of this earthquake are also felt in northwest and syria just by add it

or is it true kit? southern border. we are hearing that more than 4 to people have been killed during this earthquake in northwest syria. many hospitals in these areas where the idp is international, internally displaced at a syrians reside, have been damaged, and as some of the hospitals are being evacuated in northwest syria, and medical assistance is needed in these regions as well. of course, what makes the rescue work more difficult and at a more, more challenging for the civilian is the weather conditions to kids going through a have a snow and have the rain or lower its cities a and, and most of it, some of the cities where the earthquake has affected or under snow and under heavy rain. this is making it more difficult for the rescue workers to work and get under the rebels. and this for the civilians are being outside until they feel safe to go

inside in ed in snow and on the rain. and this is going to be a tough time for everyone. it seems. all right, that's enough because all the live for us from istanbul sent him. thanks so much for that update. now let's bring in that xena holder live from beirut. zayna. what are you hearing from your contacts in syria as to the impact of the earthquake has had their well mohammed, like you're mentioning, the epis center was in turkey, but it's a cell neighboring country is causing death and damage. the aftermath images on social media really shows how capital traffic the situation is. and this is how a rescue workers have been describing the situation to us. the white helmets, if you remember, these were the people she used to dig people from underneath the levels following the air strikes during the, during the war are now on the ground trying to big people from underneath

the bubble. and they, they were working at night in very difficult conditions, no electricity. and like i mentioned, there is a severe storm hitting the region, snow rain, cold. people are now out outside without shelter. what we understand is that buildings have collapse in more than 20 cities. and towns with desperate cries for help. this is how the rescue workers are describing the situation. and this is just the opposition controlled areas in the northwest. buildings have also collapse in government controlled areas. like how much 3 media reporting more than 40 bed and what we're also understanding more than 40 that in the position controlled area. so, and they believe that the death toll will just continue to ride with many people missing. now this, you have the difficult conditions. you have a severe storm, but we also have to remember that in the opposition controlled areas,

most of the hospitals and health care facilities were damage destroyed, type and so hospitals are struggling. there's not enough hospital staff to treat the injured and in government controlled areas. at the same time. there may be hospitals, but this is a theory as a cash strapped state and both the the government. busy all right, i believe we have lost our connection with xena holders. that was in a folder in beirut. we will get back to her shortly. let's move on now to our our next guest, madison to our he's the middle east regional director for the syrian american medical society. he's in ghazi on tap. i believe he's with us live now madison if you can hear me and i, when you great madison, you and your family experience the earthquake, could you talk our viewer through what happened the past few hours and what it has

been like for you all? yeah, it's juan. oh, full as a week it took long time for, for, for us to understand what, what's going, gone very hey the, everything inside the office get shaking and her there the i we, we used to go downstairs in the, in very difficult with that it may be you can see me sitting inside my car alongside with my family because of the inspection of the government not to go to the go to our homes in those hours though very heavy rain and the day 3 minutes where very, very, very old, full and terrific. and very difficult for, for us. unfortunately, one, imagine we see you there an hour in your, in your car,

you said you're staying there now with your family. do you know what you will be doing in the next few days? you mentioned that there is bad weather there. there is a winter storm. are you concerned about how that might impact the efforts by rescue rescue crews and aid workers? for sure. for sure. we are here in turkey, in an stable state, and then the government doing good it's, it's best to, to help people on duty spawn. but that the crisis is inside syria. unfortunately, at least in northwest, yet it's very, very horrific situation. right now we got initial information from all our hospital or about then of death is and hundreds of injured be

bull that, that hot, but those are hot, but those are all of our m a from the number of casualties in those hospitals. unfortunately, we used to evacuate one of our met didn't at the hospital because of that that and then a because of the air squeak. and also we have at, at, at least at 527. this is in that she felt hospital in i've pretty included in one mother, pregnant mother, best that way, but our, our colleagues and succeeded to get out a hair baby out alive. and she's in a good condition right now at mazin earlier. we were speaking with our correspondent beirut santa holder, and she mentioned the fact that there's just not enough hospitals,

staff or medical workers in syria to really be able to capably deal with all of this. how much concerned do you have of the impact that that will make on rescue efforts in syria? yeah. unfortunately for sure. and she has very weak a head scared system. and we are responding in the say, humanitarian response in c. s since 11 years. right now we have a crisis in addition to a very bad weather conditions and gloves, buildings, unfortunately damaged the hospitals in addition to the, the weather. so the effort should, should be focused on the human humanitarian response, especially in shelter and else to protect it

that population more than 4500000 people living in northwest area long. and unfortunately, all, all of syria is, is affected by the very horrific ethic week. all right, that's miles into our, he's the middle east regional director for the syrian american medical side. imagine, thanks so much for joining us. a best of luck to you and your family in this very difficult time. on to other news now ukrainian president voters lensky says he expects a major russian offensive in the coming weeks. and his nightly address lensky said moscow with increasing pressure on several fronts. ahead of the 1st anniversary of the war on february 24th, the battle for control of the eastern city of buck mood has been intensifying with russia deploying more troops, same as robbie reports from the capitol. keith, ukrainian soldiers, defending buck boot. enter the fray, knowing they are out numbered, and more russian fighters are on the way. but what is the major flash point on the

eastern front right now? ukraine's president has promised he won't let the city fall without a fight. but believe me or zelinski may also be preparing his people for a worst case scenario that there is to sort of, she knew who in the course of 346 days of this war. i often had to say that the situation at the front was stuff and that the situation was becoming tougher. reach it is once again, that kind of key there. ukraine's army says a gun down as many as 200 russian mercenaries from the wagner group in a recent attack. but russian forces are gaining ground as they push to surround the city. the worry for keys. now russia could be close to successfully cutting off the main highway into the city. currently ukraine's main supply line that could be a decisive moment in the battle for russian missiles are also hitting more civilian

targets along the eastern front airstrikes in car keith hit a university and a residential walk. recently there was a strong blast and everything happened so quickly. we were saved by the furniture that fell on us because of that we are alive. she's only lived in car keith, a few months homeless and displaced for a 2nd time during this war. the siege of buck mood has emptied out the city, but some refused to leave seeking refuge in prayer. ramirez murphy from the brooklyn north. i know there is a chance i might die last night as healthy into my garden. old vivian. those were blown out a booth, flint on my house this morning. it could have hit me in the head. our life is fleeting. they will die in any case. right now, or in 2030 years, it is not important. the main thing is how i present myself to god's lives licenses

. those jumped up to the nurses through unless i pray for our country for all ukraine, for my children, for my family, for all ukrainians, for oh, i pray. oh, but will ukrainian lines remain as unbreakable as their faith? both likely to be tested and coming days, as russian forces escalate. their campaign for bomber 30 zane basra, the oj 0. keith ha ha ha ha ha. still ahead on al jazeera, we follow the plight of displace families in northern syria who are struggling to cope with the harsh winter. ah ah, with contrasts are increasing. quasi arabian

plants are at the moment, looks fine. and the stormy still wintry weather is of the eastern mediterranean. the difference is greek white offers. first of all, we'll deal with the wintry stuff rather be mornings out in grease cause the drop in temperature, but that's will be allow she's sunny picture with less snowball time. get to monday still stay shower, the ireland over the mountain and the turkey a lot of snow still to come. and that's bank. yep. was already fallen anything up to half for me to easily fell. possibly more than that. they both have a get and a monday on the high ground and answer the east and maddie's wind and rain for cyprus, for lebanon. all right, dan. well beyond their patterson nolan, egypt, and that's good to stay there is going to get colder and wetter. i think now the contrast, well look further sat is of the breeze is picking up, picking up some sand with it. so there will be sandstone potential in parts of saudi and may be southern iraq about how we get to choose to attempt to arisen to though husker forecast of 30 ham, seen that weeks is not months and jerusalem's 5 in the wind and the rain throughout

equitorial africa are very few showers left and i really north of tanza near botswana is now dry, but no may be a surprisingly is getting quite wet ah, every year in china, an estimated 80000 children are abducted by one of their perils. one or one follows some mothers desperately trying to re unite with their children anal jazeera talk to al jazeera. we ask, where should they not be more oversight? perhaps our foundations, like yours. we listen when it comes to diversification. we don't do it in order to be getting all the rational energy sources we meet with global news makers. i'm talk about the stool restock matter on al jazeera. ah

ah, you're watching all the 0. here is a reminder of our top stories this hour. the battle for control of the eastern ukrainian city of buff moot is intensifying just weeks before the 1st anniversary of the russian invasion. it comes as reports from keep suggest, ukraine's defense minister is set to be replaced by the head of military intelligence. dozens of people are dead and hundreds of buildings have collapsed after a magnitude. 7.8. earthquake struck the southeastern region of turkey. tremors reportedly lasted about a minute and were felt in northern syria and lebanon as well. i for more on this developing story, let's talk to chris elders. he's a structural geology expert at current university. he joins us from perth, a chris, the region, turkey a syria, well known for having earthquakes. but how does this earthquake that's happened in

the past few hours? compared to other earth earthquakes that have happened in the past several years. as well as is a very active area for the quakes, as, as you mentioned, this one is a particularly large one of cakes of this magnitude occur perhaps every 4 or 5 years. something like that and of the see occurring in places by the large population that they can have quite a devastating effect. and i think it's other important point 5, it's quite good because because of the relatively shallow depth depth and about 17 kilometers, it sounds quite deep. but that means, but the energy that's released by the earthquake will be felt close to the, to the surface with much greater intensity than if it was deeper in the crust. chris, do we have any idea how strong and how frequent after shocks it could be? and how much they might continue from an event as powerful as this one. yes,

so there have been a large number of aftershocks immediately after the break. in fact, about half an hour after the 1st break, that was the 2nd one very close by of similar size, which must have been very worrying for the people who were just, you know, coming to terms with the initial time since the main earthquake. there's been about 15 or 16 of quite a distance about 100 to 200 kilometers all along a big fall line, which is what's called a quake. and those have been of magnitude for 5. so it's still very, very large, significantly smaller than the main event. and in a situation like this, where you have a lot of quite the aftershocks can continue for several days, several weeks, maybe even several months. so people will continue to feel the effects of earth quakes for, for some time in this area. chris, just right now is you're speaking, we're looking at live pictures of just the utter devastation in parts of turkey as

a result of this earthquake. how devastating could this be? i mean, how much more damage should we expect to be seeing in the hours and days ahead? it's actually quite a difficult thing to say in some respects, but obviously as more remote areas are accessed and the extent to which buildings of collapse becomes more apparent, then that will give a clear idea of the extent of the station. i mean, it was also experienced and has caused a number of fatalities in syria as well as in turkey. so i would expect the test tell, very, sadly, will continue to rise and i won't be significant. it's certainly very sad indeed. from your perspective, how widely would the initial quake have been felt in the region you were talking about? it's not just turkey, turkey here. it's also syria. so how widely would it be? would it have been felt in the region?

he has over a hundreds of kilometers, i think was reported to people in cyprus and in beirut, lebanon, having felt the effects of the of quake. so again, an earthquake, it's relatively shallow. like this the, the effects come spread out laterally. quite a long way from the place where the earthquake occurs. what was the, the further way you get, the less the intensity of the, the shaking will be so the biggest damage will occur in the areas of mediately around the, at the center in the southwest part, turkey and the interesting parts of syria. all right, that is chris elders, a structural geology expert at christian university. thank you so much for joining us. great to get your perspective. thank you. the white house has reacted to the earthquake national security advisor jake sullivan released a statement saying the u. s. has profoundly concerned adding the washington stands

ready to provide any and all needed assistance. he said that president biden has directed usaid and other federal government partners to assess response options to help those most affected. and that the u. s. will continue to closely monitor the situation in coordination with the government of turkey. display families in northern syria were already living in dire conditions after the destruction of their homes. but they been worsened by a severe snowstorm that had the area. i'm at vall as the details. they're left in the cold. these displaced families in north and syria are facing a new ordeal brought on by a severe snowstorm. and they are not equipped for the challenge. jewels, you'll be liberal, but as you can see for your own eyes, only this night, 5 tenths of collapsed children left on the rain and snow without any shelter. this situation is the same across all the displacement. camps in ali, post northern countryside and italy, low temperatures, along with heavy rain,

hath taken a heavy toll on the people here. most of the tents are not water resistant. there is a visible absence of essential sanitary facilities, fowl, water pants, fill the st. st. surround the tents. thick mud restricts movement and makes it difficult to deliver clean drinking water to the camps. children in particular are suffering the most. well i got another i know other children in the camp are sick. if he wants to take a tel to a hospital, we have no alternative but to carry it through the mud and walk a long distance to the main road. my dead in water every way. we are left without anything to keep us warm. serious issue mighty terry, in response coordinators are warning of a further deterioration of the situation in the camps. more snow form is predicted in the coming days and they are calling on international relief agencies for help.

in addition to food and clothes, there is a desperate need for heating equipment, and there are warnings of possible deaths because of the severe cold. there are nearly 2000000 displaced people in north and syria, leaving caps along the turkish border. and many of them need urgent help to get them through a tough winter. mohammed fall dizzier. tens of thousands of fled their homes in eastern democratic republic of congo in recent days. after renewed attacks by the m $23.00 armed group, the rebels are widely understood to be backed by neighboring bewanda, which its government denies. malcolm web has more from the village of king eric and dia shimmy. a says he couldn't bury his 78 year old mother after she was hacked to death with machetes. fighters from the n 23 arms group attacked his village last week in eastern democratic republic of congo. new i live,

i move in to my mom left home to go and farm and suddenly the n 23 appeared and killed her little brother. witness. it came to tell us we didn't go there because we feel it. if they're killing an old woman, then they'll be killing young people like us as well. then throw a camel eric's among tens of thousands of people who fled their homes. in recent days, this camp on the outskirts of the city of goma, the new home we went up into the hills to see where they come from. we accompanied an army general, who was visiting commanders near the front line. most of the people that live around here have fled the homes and the shops are empty. they've been taken over by soldiers who turn this village into a base. and here they are looking across their enemy on that distant hillside. the slopes here, a steep terrain makes it very difficult for anyone to attack or defend

the armies last waves of territory to end 23. in the last 4 months. many conquer liza questioning why the government hasn't done more to supported forces. and 20 threes, rapidly grown stronger, denies committing atrocities that it frequently accused of its fighters carry one than army equipment. and rwandan soldiers had been photographed among them one to deny supporting them them in twice as she bellied. yeah. this is not m 23. it's the one that army. and you should know that 23 is not only with through want an army, but it's also supported by other groups operating that in congo. and this by you and investigators writes groups and residents all say congos forces have collaborated with armed groups to fight against them. 23 congos government denies it. when the accused congo of hiring foreign mercenaries,

congress governments has its hired form of french soldiers. as military instructors, we need some instruct all and i think with those who are working with them, it's a group of what we call in france leisure in the enjoy tarzan dilemma phase. the, when know, they come to give some instruction to our military simple. further up in these hills, a colton mines vast sums for whoever controls them. the people who lived here farming the slopes and now camped in the valleys, hoping somebody will bring them food, has been conflict here on and off since the 1990s. now it's intensifying once again . malcolm web al jazeera kinky democratic republic has called a both are now being counted in ecuador is constitutional referendum and local elections. the national referendum was proposed by president kiana milan, so to battle a crime wave and address environmental issues. over 13000000 people were registered

to participate, the opposition led by former socialist president, rafael korea has been urging voters to reject the proposed reforms. alessandra of empathy has more from kito elections. officials are counting the votes of sundays the election in ecuador, but they also said that this will be a longer process, a precedent. the guillermo, alas, to the who was expected to speak. i, late on a sunday, has now postpone this speech. and we'll probably wait until monday morning here in quito to talk about the results of these elections. early projections show that a majority of ecuadorian, sir, could have voted in favor of the constitutional referendum that the president proposed to try and deal with many a social, political, and security crisis. this country is going through this election was seen in many

ways as a referendum on the administration of a very unpopular president guillermo lasso. and if indeed the in the end, a majority will have voted in favor of this referendum. this could be a major political, a victory for the president wants that he needed, given the fact that he has a support of less than 20 percent and haven't been able to push any of their reforms that he promised when he came into power in 2020 a wine especially saying sir, he's dealing with an hostile, a congress. his party only has 13 of a 137 seats in congress. ah, this is al jazeera and these are the top stories. dozens of people are dead after a magnitude 7.8. earthquake struck the south.