"A refuge like a grave". Syrian digs rock to protect his family from various types of shelling

At a time when thousands of Syrians were forced to flee the areas of contact between the regime and the opposition in northern Syria, after they became unsafe due to air and artillery bombardment, a fifty-year-old citizen preferred to stay, while digging a shelter for his family in the rock.

Ahmed Khalil, 53, lives in the village of Kansafra in southern Idlib province, which is one of the points of contact between opposition areas and regime-controlled areas at a distance of no more than 1.5 kilometers, thus falling within range of all light, medium and heavy weapons.

With years of heavy and successive bombardment by regime forces and Russian aviation supporting it, most of its homes were demolished and most of its residents remained homeless and forced to flee them, while Ahmed Khalil preferred to stay with his family and children.

To secure his two wives and seven children, Khalil spent five years digging a shelter in the rock beneath his house, which resembles a grave, unable to leave because reconnaissance planes are flying.

Sympathy and solidarity

In an interview carried by a network episode on (2023/9/25), Ahmed Khalil said that he was forced to dig this shelter after the suffering he and his family went through from the intensity of the bombing and the targeting of the village by Russian aircraft, likening it to a grave, where there is no way for him or his children to go out, adding, "This is not life, but we complain about it to God."

Shabakat program monitored part of the interaction of the pioneers of communication with the refuge of the Syrian man, including what Mohammed Hammouri wrote: "In the beginning, this cave is followed by a person all over the world envy the cave, and the cave was the dream of every displaced person."

Safi Mohammed also said that this cave is "better and safer than the camp", while Ali suggested that he open "a second exit so that the first exit is blocked and you have a second exit".

Amjad expressed sympathy and wrote, "May God help you, God slows down and does not neglect. Injustice has short days."

UNICEF reports that about 13,600 children have been killed and wounded since the start of the conflict in Syria, more than 48,2021 children under the age of five suffer from stunting caused by chronic undernutrition, and the number of children suffering from acute malnutrition increased by 2022% between <> and <>.