Death toll from Afghan earthquake jumps to more than 2,200 as aid agencies plead for funds

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AP) — Hundreds more bodies have been recovered from houses in mountain villages destroyed by a major earthquake in Afghanistan early this week, pushing the death toll to over 2,200, a Taliban government spokesman said Thursday.

The shallow, 6.0-magnitude quake struck the mountainous and remote eastern part of the country late Sunday, leveling villages and trapping people under rubble. Most of the casualties have been in Kunar province, where people typically live in wood and mud-brick houses along steep river valleys separated by high mountains.

Some 98% percent of the buildings in the province were damaged or destroyed, according to an assessment issued Thursday by the Islamic Relief charity. Aid agencies said they were sorely in need of staff and supplies to tend to the region's survivors.

Muhammad Israel said the quake unleashed a landslide that buried his home, livestock, and belongings in Kunar. “All the rocks came down from the mountain," he said. “I barely got my children out of there. ... The earthquake jolts are still happening. It is impossible to live there."

Late Thursday, a 5.6-magnitude quake rattled Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, which is south of the hardest-hit Kunar province, though there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Israel was staying at a U.N. medical camp in Nurgal, one of the worst-affected districts of Kunar. “The situation is also bad for us here, we don’t have shelter and are living under open skies," he said.

Previous estimates said some 1,400 people were killed. Taliban spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said Thursday that the updated death toll was 2,205 and that search and rescue efforts were continuing.

“Tents have been set up for people, and the delivery of first aid and emergency supplies is ongoing," Fitrat said.

The rough terrain is hindering relief efforts. Taliban authorities have deployed helicopters and airdropped army commandos to help survivors. Aid workers have reported walking for hours to reach villages cut off by landslides and rockfall.

Funding cuts are also having an impact on the response. The Norwegian Refugee Council said it had fewer than 450 staff in Afghanistan whereas it had 1,100 in 2023, the date of the last major quake in the country. The council only had one warehouse remaining and no emergency stock.

“We will need to purchase items once we get the funding but this will take potentially weeks and people are in need now,” said Maisam Shafiey, the communications and advocacy advisor for the council in Afghanistan.

“We have only $100,000 available to support emergency response efforts. This leaves an immediate funding gap of $1.9 million," Shafiey said.

Dr. Shamshair Khan, who was attending the injured at the U.N. camp in Nurgal, said his own condition had deteriorated after seeing the suffering of others.

“Neither these medicines are enough nor these services,” he said. “These people need more medicine and tents. They need food and clean drinking water. These people are in great pain.”

Qatar’s minister of state for international cooperation, Maryam bint Ali bin Nasser Al Misnad, arrived in Kabul on Wednesday to oversee the delivery of aid to earthquake victims.

She is the first female minister to visit Afghanistan on a humanitarian mission since the Taliban seized power in 2021, and the first high-ranking foreign official to travel there since the quake.

Aid organizations describe the latest disaster as a crisis within a crisis. Afghanistan was already struggling with drought, a weak economy and the recent return of some 2 million Afghans from neighboring countries.

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Associated Press writer Hedayat Shah contributed from Nurgal, Afghanistan, and Abdul Qahar Afghani contributed from Jalalabad, Afghanistan

Afghan volunteers collect donations for victims of a powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)

Residents and Taliban soldiers shield themselves from the wind of a helicopter taking off as efforts continue after Sunday night's powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck several provinces, in Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Nava Jamshidi)

Residents from surrounding towns and villages climb as they try to reach the quake-hit region to assist survivors after Sunday night's powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck several provinces, in the Nurgol district, Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Nava Jamshidi)

Villagers, survivors of Sunday night's 6.0-magnitude earthquake, wait for assistance in the village of Wadir, Kunar province, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Nava Jamshidi)

The body of a girl is placed on a bed frame after being pulled from the rubble following Sunday night's powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake, in a remote area of Kunar province, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, (AP Photo/Nava Jamshidi)

Afghans injured in a powerful earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, lie on beds at Nangarhar Regional Hospital in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)

Displaced Afghan families gather under trees with their belongings after a powerful earthquake destroyed their homes in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, in Mazar Dara, Kunar province, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)

Afghans injured during a powerful earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan Sunday, are treated at Nangarhar Regional hospital in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025.(AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)

Afghans affected by a powerful earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan on Sunday rest outside Nangarhar Regional Hospital in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)

A federal appeals panel on Thursday reversed a lower court decision that released former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from an immigration jail, bringing the government one step closer to detaining and ultimately deporting the Palestinian activist.

The three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t decide the key issue in Khalil’s case: whether the Trump administration’s effort to throw Khalil out of the U.S. over his campus activism and criticism of Israel is unconstitutional.

But in its 2-1 decision, the panel ruled a federal judge in New Jersey didn’t have jurisdiction to decide the matter at this time. Federal law requires the case to fully move through the immigration courts first, before Khalil can challenge the decision, they wrote.

“That scheme ensures that petitioners get just one bite at the apple — not zero or two,” the panel wrote. “But it also means that some petitioners, like Khalil, will have to wait to seek relief for allegedly unlawful government conduct.”

Thursday’s decision marked a major win for the Trump administration’s sweeping campaign to detain and deport noncitizens who joined protests against Israel.

Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security Department spokesperson, called the ruling “a vindication of the rule of law.”

In a statement, she said the department will “work to enforce his lawful removal order” and encouraged Khalil to “self-deport now before he is arrested, deported, and never given a chance to return.”

It was not clear whether the government would seek to detain Khalil, a legal permanent resident, again while his legal challenges continue.

In a statement distributed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Khalil called the appeals ruling “deeply disappointing."

“The door may have been opened for potential re-detainment down the line, but it has not closed our commitment to Palestine and to justice and accountability," he said. "I will continue to fight, through every legal avenue and with every ounce of determination, until my rights, and the rights of others like me, are fully protected.”

Baher Azmy, one of Khalil's lawyers, said the ruling was “contrary to rulings of other federal courts."

“Our legal options are by no means concluded, and we will fight with every available avenue,” he said.

The ACLU said the Trump administration cannot lawfully re-detain Khalil until the order takes formal effect, which won't happen while he can still immediately appeal.

Khalil’s lawyers can request that the panel's decision be set aside and the matter reconsidered by a larger group of judges on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, or they can go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

An outspoken leader of the pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia, Khalil was arrested last March. He then spent three months detained in a Louisiana immigration jail, missing the birth of his first child.

Federal officials have accused Khalil of leading activities “aligned to Hamas,” though they have not presented evidence to support the claim and have not accused him of criminal conduct. They also accused Khalil, 31, of failing to disclose information on his green card application.

The government justified the arrest under a seldom-used statute that allows for the expulsion of noncitizens whose beliefs are deemed to pose a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests.

In June, a federal judge in New Jersey ruled that justification would likely be declared unconstitutional and ordered Khalil released.

President Donald Trump's administration appealed that ruling, arguing the deportation decision should fall to an immigration judge, rather than a federal court.

Khalil has dismissed the allegations as “baseless and ridiculous,” framing his arrest and detention as a “direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza.”

New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, said on social media Thursday that Khalil should remain free.

“Last year’s arrest of Mahmoud Khalil was more than just a chilling act of political repression, it was an attack on all of our constitutional rights,” Mamdani wrote on X. “Now, as the crackdown on pro-Palestinian free speech continues, Mahmoud is being threatened with rearrest. Mahmoud is free — and must remain free.”

Judge Arianna Freeman dissented Thursday, writing that her colleagues were holding Khalil to the wrong legal standard. Khalil, she wrote, is raising “now-or-never claims” that can be handled at the district court level, even though his immigration case isn't complete.

Both judges who ruled against Khalil, Thomas Hardiman and Stephanos Bibas, were Republican appointees. President George W. Bush appointed Hardiman to the 3rd Circuit, while Trump appointed Bibas. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, appointed Freeman.

The two-judge majority rejected Freeman's worry that their decision would leave Khalil with no remedy for unconstitutional immigration detention, even if he later can appeal.

“But our legal system routinely forces petitioners — even those with meritorious claims — to wait to raise their arguments," the judges wrote.

The decision comes as an appeals board in the immigration court system weighs a previous order that found Khalil could be deported to Algeria, where he maintains citizenship through a distant relative, or Syria, where he was born in a refugee camp to a Palestinian family.

His attorneys have said he faces mortal danger if forced to return to either country.

Associated Press writers Larry Neumeister and Anthony Izaguirre contributed to this story.

FILE - Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil holds a news conference outside Federal Court on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025 in Philadelphia (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)