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After Fleeing War in Gaza, an Entire Palestinian Family Dies in Türkiye Earthquake

Smoke rises from a building in Antakya, southern Türkiye, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. (AP)
Smoke rises from a building in Antakya, southern Türkiye, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. (AP)
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After Fleeing War in Gaza, an Entire Palestinian Family Dies in Türkiye Earthquake

Smoke rises from a building in Antakya, southern Türkiye, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. (AP)
Smoke rises from a building in Antakya, southern Türkiye, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. (AP)

Twelve years ago, Abdel-Karim Abu Jalhoum fled war and poverty in the Palestinian territory of Gaza for safety in Türkiye.

On Monday, the massive earthquake that devastated parts of Türkiye and Syria killed him and his entire family.

The Palestinian foreign ministry said Abu Jalhoum, his wife Fatima, and their four children, were among 70 Palestinians who had been found dead. The overall death toll in the quake has shot beyond 11,000.

"My brother went to Türkiye to seek a better life away from wars and blockades here in Gaza," Abu Jalhoum's brother, Ramzy, 43, told Reuters as relatives and neighbors trickled into the family's house in the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday to pay respects.

"We lost the family. An entire family was wiped off the civil registration record," he said.

Abu Jalhoum had worked as a taxi driver in Gaza but struggled to support a growing family and left in 2010 for Türkiye. There, he worked in a wood factory in Antakya, and Fatima and their children joined him once he was established.

In Antakya, life was promising for the 50-year-old father, 33-year-old Fatima and their children, Noura, 16, Bara, 11, Kenzi, 9 and Mohammad, their 3-year-old who was born in Türkiye. Six months ago, they had moved to a new apartment, according to the family.

In the hours after the tremors, the extended family desperately tried to make contact, calling everyone who could offer any information. On Tuesday, they recognized the family in a photo showing them buried under the rubble, lifeless.

In the picture, Abu Jalhoum is seen embracing his children, seemingly trying to protect them with his own body as their home collapsed on them.

There are no exact figures as to how many Palestinians live in Türkiye, but many, especially from Gaza, have in recent years moved to Türkiye, fleeing a densely populated territory that has witnessed frequent wars that have left the economy in ruins.

The United Nations relief agency UNRWA estimates around 438,000 Palestinian refugees live in Syria.

The Palestinian Authority, which has a limited rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said it had sent a rescue mission to the impacted areas.

At the family house in Beit Lahiya, Abu Jalhoum's mother, Wedad, prayed their bodies could be returned home for burial.

"I haven't seen my son, nor his children for 12 years," the weeping mother said, dressed in black and surrounded by neighbors.

"I want my children, I want to see them and bid them farewell."

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Lebanon's Public Schools Reopen amid War and Displacement

Children playing in a shelter center for displaced people in the town of Marwaniyah in South Lebanon (AP)
Children playing in a shelter center for displaced people in the town of Marwaniyah in South Lebanon (AP)
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Lebanon's Public Schools Reopen amid War and Displacement

Children playing in a shelter center for displaced people in the town of Marwaniyah in South Lebanon (AP)
Children playing in a shelter center for displaced people in the town of Marwaniyah in South Lebanon (AP)

In the quiet seaside town of Amchit, 45 minutes north of Beirut, public schools are finally in session again, alongside tens of thousands of internally displaced people who have made some of them a makeshift shelter.

As Israeli strikes on Lebanon escalated in September, hundreds of schools in Lebanon were either destroyed or closed due to damage or security concerns, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Of around 1,250 public schools in Lebanon, 505 schools have also been turned into temporary shelters for some of the 840,000 people internally displaced by the conflict, according to the Lebanese education ministry.

Last month, the ministry started a phased reopening, allowing 175,000 students - 38,000 of whom are displaced - to return to a learning environment that is still far from normal, Reuters reported.

At Amchit Secondary Public School, which now has 300 enrolled students and expects more as displaced families keep arriving, the once-familiar spaces have transformed to accommodate new realities.

Two-and-a-half months ago, the school was chosen as a shelter, school director Antoine Abdallah Zakhia said.

Today, laundry hangs from classroom windows, cars fill the playground that was once a bustling area, and hallways that used to echo with laughter now serve as resting areas for families seeking refuge.

Fadia Yahfoufi, a displaced woman living temporarily at the school, expressed gratitude mixed with longing.

"Of course, we wish to go back to our homes. No one feels comfortable except at home," she said.

Zeina Shukr, another displaced mother, voiced her concerns for her children's education.

"This year has been unfair. Some children are studying while others aren't. Either everyone studies, or the school year should be postponed," she said.

- EDUCATION WON'T STOP

OCHA said the phased plan to resume classes will enrol 175,000 students, including 38,000 displaced children, across 350 public schools not used as shelters.

"The educational process is one of the aspects of resistance to the aggression Lebanon is facing," Education Minister Abbas Halabi told Reuters

Halabi said the decision to resume the academic year was difficult as many displaced students and teachers were not psychologically prepared to return to school.

In an adjacent building at Amchit Secondary Public School, teachers and students are adjusting to a compressed three-day week, with seven class periods each day to maximize learning time.

Nour Kozhaya, a 16-year-old Amchit resident, remains optimistic. "Lebanon is at war, but education won't stop. We will continue to pursue our dreams," she said.

Teachers are adapting to the challenging conditions.

"Everyone is mentally exhausted ... after all this war is on all of us," Patrick Sakr, a 38-year-old physics teacher, said.

For Ahmad Ali Hajj Hassan, a displaced 17-year-old from the Bekaa region, the three-day school week presents a challenge, but not a deterrent.

"These are the conditions. We can study despite them," he said.