Nasser Al-Wakaa sought to keep his family safe during years of war, shelling and airstrikes until the earthquake demolished their home on Monday in Jendires, Aleppo Governorate in northwestern Syria, which led to the death of his wife and most of his children.

Rescuers were able to extract two of his children from under the rubble of the house during the night, and video footage showed the two children bruised 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, while he was in a state of despair and confusion.

One of Nasser al-Waka'''s sons before being pulled out from under the rubble (Reuters)

Al-Wakaa said, "The house shook. We are used to it. We are used to hitting planes. We are used to being hit by a missile. A barrel will drop on you. We are used to it. But an earthquake means, this is God's command."

He added, "I came out and said (I said) Oh Lord, just leave me one (leave me only one). I only want one from this child (I want only one of the children to survive)."

After the earthquake, Al-Wakaa asked for help to save his children, and learned that his sons Faisal and Mohsin had died.

piece of paper

The bodies of the eldest daughter, Heba, and her younger sister, Israa, were found.

Heba 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)."

Nasser Al-Wakaa stands on the rubble of his house crying for his wife and 5 of his children who were lost in the earthquake (Reuters)

The town of Jenderes, on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey, saw many homes destroyed and some partially collapsed in an enclave controlled by the opposition.

Rescue workers and residents dig through the rubble for survivors, sometimes using equipment.

In another part of the town, the rescuers pulled out the child Ahmed Abdel-Jabbar (5 years old), who is the only survivor among his family of 6.

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.

The imam of a mosque in the city of Jenderes held back his tears while delivering the Friday sermon.

A United Nations agency said 14 aid trucks arrived in northwestern Syria on Friday, the first outside aid to reach a rebel-held area, one of the areas hardest hit by the quake.

The earthquake claimed more than 23,000 lives, most of them in Turkey, including more than 3,000 in Syria.