Israeli ambassador to Turkey: Horrors of the earthquake 'cannot be described'

Irit Lillian, Israel's ambassador to Turkey, spoke on Monday evening with reporters from Israel's 103FM radio station regarding the devastating earthquake that hit the nation on Sunday night and again on Monday. 

"Ankara also experienced a small earthquake today," began Lillian. "Tremors from the large quake at noon. People came out of buildings onto the street - it was like what you felt in Israel. The [more] difficult sights are, of course, coming from the site of the disaster; it's the kind of thing that cannot be described. Houses that seemed perfectly stable [were] falling apart before people's eyes like houses of cards.

"The fact that the number of dead and injured is increasing each moment...before they even started clearing the ruins - it's awful. It's heartbreaking.

Israel's emergency aid to Turkey

The ambassador also discussed Israel's emergency aid delegation that was sent to Turkey on Monday: 

"The operation...is managed by the national emergency authorities, but the Foreign Ministry is leading the way. The first team will arrive in the next few hours, followed by more intensive air support with search and rescue teams. A team from the [Israeli] embassy [in Turkey] is on its way to the site [right now]. We hope to be able to combine all the [emergency relief] efforts together so that we can provide as much help as quickly as possible.

"It is not clear exactly where the Israeli teams will be sent - we are talking about ten different districts where hundreds of houses collapsed."