Syria's White Helmets are famous for rescuing people from bombed buildings. When the earthquake struck, they knew what to do.

Syrian civilians and members of the White Helmets conduct search-and-rescue operations in the rubble of a collapsed building in Harem, Syria, following a magnitude 7.8 earthquake.

Anas Alkharboutli/picture alliance via Getty Images

• Syria's White Helmets have been searching for survivors and corpses following the earthquake.
• The volunteer group has criticized the UN for its slow response in sending aid to rebel-held areas.
• A rescuer on the ground told Insider they had been using their bare hands to search the rubble.

Using their bare hands and primitive equipment, volunteers from Syria's White Helmets organization have been digging through the rubble to find survivors and corpses following the devastating earthquake.

"We didn't have the sophisticated equipment needed to respond immediately to the massive scale of rubble. But with the limited capabilities that we have, we have responded," Ismail Alabdullah, a volunteer with the White Helmets in a rebel-held area of Syria, told Insider.

The death toll from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria rose to over 41,000 on Friday, officials said.

The White Helmets and others on the ground have criticized the slow delivery of aid to rebel-held parts of Syria, which Alabdullah said hampered their recovery efforts and cost lives.

"We do not know why the United Nations was slow and why they supported Turkey but did not support northwest Syria at the beginning. This is a question for the UN," Alabdullah said.

The war-weary people of Syria are no strangers to death and destruction. 

And after over a decade of civil war, the volunteer White Helmets group, which gained international prominence for their work rescuing people from bombed buildings, was well-prepared to quickly respond to the earthquake.

"Our experience over the last years dealing with the bombardment and bombings gave us a great experience to respond, and that's why we responded immediately after just a few seconds after the earthquake," Alabdullah said, speaking from the Idlib countryside in northwestern Syria.

However, the devastation caused by the earthquake has been on a larger scale than anything Syria has experienced so far in the war. The organization of around 3,000 people has been trying to deal with approximately four million people affected.

"With an airstrike, the number of people under the rubble would be maybe 100 to 200, but we're talking about thousands of people now," Alabdullah said.

He estimated that more than 580 buildings had collapsed completely, that more than 1,500 have been damaged partially, and that more than 40,000 people are now without homes.

Displaced people in the city of Jenderes, Syria, after the earthquake.

Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Part of the reason the damage was so great is that years of Russian and Syrian bombing have left buildings damaged, and many in the region had already been displaced before the earthquake.

After 13 days, the chances of finding any more survivors are slim to none. 

The group is still receiving calls about missing people and is focusing its energy on trying to retrieve corpses from the rubble.

The forgotten people of Syria

While assistance reached Syria's largest cities in the days following the earthquake, which the Assad regime controls, the opposition-held northwest was largely left neglected.

The White Helmets have been critical of the UN for their slow response in sending aid to rebel-held parts of Syria and for asking President Bashar al-Assad for permission to deliver aid through two additional border crossings with Turkey.

"We asked for help from the very beginning, they didn't respond. We don't know why," Alabdullah said.

Martin Griffiths, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs at the UN, acknowledged and apologized for this delay on Sunday, writing on  Twitter: "We have so far failed the people in north-west Syria. They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn't arrived."

Civil-defense workers and residents search through the rubble of collapsed buildings in the town of Harem near the Turkish border in Idlib province, Syria, Monday, February 6, 2023.

Ghaith Alsayed/AP Photo

The UN was not immediately available for comment.

While aid has now started to arrive in northwest Syria, Alabdullah said that the delays likely cost countless lives.

'The White Helmets are no strangers to digging people out of the rubble'

The White Helmets have received widespread praise for their work during the civil war, even being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016.

The Assad regime and its supporters have denigrated them and said the volunteer group has links to jihadist groups.

Oubadah Alwan, the group's media coordinator, told Insider that the group's priority was the well-being of the people of Syria and that they work wherever they are able to.

"The White Helmets are no strangers to digging people out of the rubble," he said.

"We're willing to work in any area that we can in Syria, and we have tried," he said. "In the past, when we have worked in government areas, our volunteers have either been killed or arrested and detained and never seen again."

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