MUZAFFARABAD, October 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Pakistan dramatically raised on Saturday, October 15, the death toll from last week's massive earthquake to 38,000 people, putting at some 3.3 million the number of people made homeless, as rescuers battled poor weather to bring them food and shelter.

"There are 38,000 dead in the earthquake," Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"It may still go up," he said. "It is a colossal tragedy."

Officials had earlier put at 25,000 the death toll of the 7.6-magnitude quake that flattened swathes of northeast Pakistan a week ago.

The quake, one of the most powerful to hit the south East Asia region in decades, has wrecked havoc on Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, with most houses, government buildings and shops totally collapsed.

Hussein Gezairy, the head of the World Health Organization's regional office that covers Pakistan, has warned that the devastation wrecked by the quake was "much bigger than the tsunami and much bigger definitely than what happened in the United States with Katrina hurricane."

Sherpao said some 3.3 million people have been made homeless by the devastating quake.

"Their houses have either been destroyed or damaged," added the minister.

Pakistan's disaster response chief, Major General Farooq Javed, said there was no guarantee the homeless would all be sheltered by winter.

"We will try, so that as many people as possible are in some kind of shelter, but we can't promise all will be under tents," he told Geo television.

Meanwhile, early winter cold weather and heavy rain have swept the country adding insult to the injury of the homeless victims and presenting another obstacle for soldiers and aid agencies racing against time to get food, blankets and shelter to remote mountainous areas.

Rescue operations were reportedly abandoned on Friday as hopes of finding anyone alive in the rubble faded.

However, the Pakistani military said it has not called off the search.

Kashmiri girls and woman take shelter on a roadside in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization (WHO) coordinator in Muzzaffarabad, Altuf Musani, warned that survivors are at grave risk of hypothermia and gangrenous infection with less than a week to save them.

He said survivors cut off in remote villages could die from hypothermia after hours of heavy rain and fresh snowfall in the highest mountains.

"In these conditions, people will freeze. They will suffer hypothermia," Musani told AFP.

There were many serious cases of gangrene among the injured, who had come down from the mountains on foot in search of help, he said.

The government says that it is trying its best to reach these remote mountainous areas before harsh winter attacks.

"The government has been maximizing its effort to reach the affected area to provide rescue and relief to people there," Sherpao said.

Helicopter flights bringing vital supplies to far-flung villages were temporarily suspended Saturday morning due to bad weather.

The rain further has slowed the number of people who can be evacuated to hospitals in Islamabad and other cities, and many of the injured had been waiting for days to get proper care.

As it cautiously warms up to Tel Aviv, Pakistan said Saturday it will accept any financial aid from Israel for the quake victims.

"If Israel wants to contribute we have no objections," foreign office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told AFP.

"I think we have already clarified that, and the prime minister has said we have the president's relief fund into which anyone can contribute. There are no restrictions," she added.

No consignment is expected directly from Israel to Pakistan, Aslam said, adding that Israel could join multilateral efforts to help.

The United Nations had launched an appeal for assistance and "there is likelihood that Israel will contribute funds there", she noted.

The move could prove controversial with the majority of the public and Islamic parties opposed to any improvement in ties with Israel.

In an unprecedented gesture, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf handshaked Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and his Israeli counterpart, Silvan Shalom, met in Turkey on September 1, the first official diplomatic contact after nearly 60 years of hostility.

Supporters of the opposition Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six Islamic parties, took to the streets during a countrywide protest it called a day after the talks.

Alliance chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed said the government had sold out to US demands for improved ties with Israel.