The tragedy of a Syrian family who sought refuge in Lebanon and died in the Beirut bombing
"Khalidiya" wife of "Ahmed Staifi" fled the relentless bombardment in neighboring Syria, but she and her two daughters were killed in the Beirut port explosion.
The "Staifi" family passed away six years ago in the face of the raging war in Syria, and took refuge in Lebanon, where he was already residing in "Staifi" and earning his livelihood as a laborer.
Staifi, a father of four, said that his wife had called him and informed him that she had fled the war in Syria and that she was on the way. He added that death followed her to Beirut.
When Staifi ran home after the port explosion that rocked Beirut last week, he heard his daughter calling from under the rubble of their apartment.
"Staifi" remembers that he came to see his family and found out what had happened. He added that one of his daughters was crying and saying, "Dad, dad, I don't want to die."
The daughter survived, and another child, still receiving treatment in the intensive care room, survived. But his wife, Khaldiya, Saghra, and his eldest daughters, Judy and Latifa (13 and 24 years old), perished as a mushroom cloud flew over the Lebanese capital due to the explosion in the port.
The explosion caused the transformation of the building in which the three-storey apartment "Staifi" lived in, into pieces of concrete blocks and welded iron.
The explosion, which killed more than 170 people and injured six thousand others, immediately demolished entire areas of Beirut, including Karantina, where "Staifi" and his family were living a mostly quiet life.
More than a million refugees have poured into Lebanon from Syria since 2011, when the Syrian conflict erupted. Many of them covered with daily wages and live in camps.
There were reports that at least 43 Syrians were killed in the Beirut port explosion.
Staifi said that now he does not contact his relatives in his city of Idlib, which was destroyed by the years of the Syrian war, to check on them. He added that they are now calling him to check on him.
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- Beirut explosion,
- Syrian,
- Victims of the Beirut bombing