12 years ago, Abdul Karim Abu Jalhoum left Gaza for Antakya, Turkey, in search of safety and work away from wars and siege, but the violent earthquake that devastated parts of Turkey and Syria last Monday claimed his life and the lives of all his family members.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Abu Jalhoum, his wife Fatima and their four children were among the 70 Palestinians confirmed dead.
Ramzi Abu Jalhoum, 43 years old, Abdul Karim's brother, told Reuters that his brother traveled to Turkey looking for a better life than the life of wars and siege in Gaza. "We lost a family. An entire family was removed from the civil registry," he said.
Relatives and neighbors flocked to the family home in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip today, Wednesday, to offer condolences.
Abu Jalhoum used to work as a taxi driver in Gaza, but he was struggling to support his growing family. He left for Turkey in 2010, and there he worked in a wood factory in Antakya. Fatima and their children joined him as soon as his financial condition stabilized.
In Antakya, life was promising for the 50-year-old father, Fatima, 33, and their children Noura, 16, Baraa, 11, Kenzi, 9, and Muhammad, 3, who was born in Turkey.
According to family relatives, they moved to a new apartment 6 months ago.
In the hours after the earthquakes, relatives tried in vain to contact them, calling whoever they could to provide any information.
Yesterday, Tuesday, they recognized the family in a picture that shows them under the rubble and they died.
In the picture, Abu Jalhoum appears embracing his children, in what appears to be an attempt to protect them with his body from the collapse of their house on top of them.
The total death toll from the earthquake in Turkey and Syria has jumped to more than 12,000.
There are no accurate figures for the number of Palestinians residing in Turkey, but many - especially from Gaza - have moved to it in recent years to escape from the overcrowded strip, which has witnessed repeated rounds of war with the Israeli occupation that destroyed the economy.
Estimates of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) indicate that about 438,000 Palestinian refugees live in Syria.
At the family home in Beit Lahiya, Abd al-Karim's mother and father continue to pray that their bodies can be brought home for burial.
The weeping mother added, "I have not seen my son or his children for 12 years," and she was wearing black clothes and surrounded by her neighbors.