Genders (Agencies)
Nasser al-Wakaa kept his family safe during the years of war, until the earthquake demolished their house last Monday in Jenderes, northwestern Syria, which led to the death of his wife and most of his children.
Rescuers managed to pull two of his sons out of the rubble of the house during the night. Video footage showed the two children with bruises and covered in dust. Another child survived, but his wife and at least five of his children perished. Al-Wakaa sat among the rubble and concrete blocks mourning his wife and the rest of his children, embracing the clothes of one of the deceased.
He began muttering the names of his children, male and female, without mentioning their exact number, in a state of despair and confusion.
Al-Wakaa said, “The house shook. An earthquake means this is God’s command.” He added, “I said, O Lord, leave one of my children for me.” Rescue workers and residents dig through the rubble, sometimes using equipment, looking for survivors.
In another part of the town, rescuers pulled out the 5-year-old Ahmed Abdul-Jabbar, the only survivor among his family of six. One of his relatives, Ahmed Abu Shehab, spent hours lifting stones to reach him before being transferred to an ambulance.
“My father and I were sitting in the living room when I heard the sound of the earthquake,” said the boy, as he lay on his bed in a hospital near the city of Azaz.
After the earthquake, Al-Wakaa asked for help to save his children, and learned that his sons Faisal and Mohsen had died.
The bodies of the eldest daughter, Heba, and her younger sister, Israa, were found. Hiba was dead, and her little sister was also dead in her lap. The body of another sister, Samiha, was found near them. Al-Wakaa carried with him a scrap of paper that his eldest daughter, Heba, had written in her own handwriting in a notebook that was found buried under the rubble. In elegant handwriting, Heba wrote: “Oh God, I entrust you with the most precious thing I have, so keep it for me. You are in God’s protection and in my heart I am, Abu Faisal (her father’s nickname).”
Later, Al-Wakaa stood in amazement while burying one of his sons in a mass grave containing many of the bodies of the victims of the disaster.
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