The participants carried Syrian and Turkish flags, solidarity placards, and candles to express their sympathy with the earthquake victims, their families, and the two countries.

“We are standing today in sympathy and solidarity with the brotherly peoples of Syria and Türkiye, and to tell them that our hearts are with them,” Khan Yunis mayor Aladdin al-Batta said during the vigil.

“We cannot forget their role in supporting Palestine, so we extend our hand to them and we are ready to provide full support,” mayor Batta added.

The combined death toll in Türkiye and Syria surpassed 11,000 people, with the number of victims in the two countries climbing quickly two days after earthquakes leveled cities and towns.

In a related context, the number of Palestinians killed in the earthquakes that hit southern Türkiye and northern Syria on Monday has risen to 65 after rescue workers found on Tuesday the bodies of two women, one of them pregnant, under the rubble of buildings in Turkey.

Palestine ambassador to Turkey, Fayed Mustafa, said rescue workers were able today to pull a man alive from the rubble of a building in the Turkish city of Antakya while his wife, in her ninth month of pregnancy, died.

The Palestinian death toll from the earthquakes is likely to increase as search efforts continue in the two countries, according to the ambassador. (ILKHA)