Aleppo residents struggle to cope with rubble, ruin
ALEPPO, Syria — The street looks as if it was hit by an earthquake, and the bombedout building in a former rebelheld northeastern neighborhood of Aleppo is deserted — except for the second-floor apartment where Abdul-Hamid Khatib and his family are staying.
There is no electricity or running water. The apartment windows are covered with nylon sheets, and a hole caused by a shell in the sitting room wall is closed with a piece of metal, pierced by the exhaust pipe for the wood-burning heater.
Khatib and his family are the only occupants of the six-story building and they keep its main gate locked with a metal chain, fearing looters. At night, they fumble around the two-bedroom apartment with candles. But the family has nowhere else to go.
“A few days ago a man who brought some stuff over told me, ‘Is it possible that you live here?’ I said where can we go? At least this is our house and no one will ask us to leave,” said Hasnaa, Khatib’s wife.
Life and war have been very unkind to the Khatib family. Eldest son Mohammed was killed in the bombardment of east Aleppo in 2013, and granddaughter Hasnaa, 4, was killed a year later by a bullet as she played on the balcony of her parents’ apartment. Their son Mahmoud died at work of severe burns while welding a metal container filled with gas.
Since rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad stormed east Aleppo in July 2012, the family had to leave the house three times to move to safer areas, before returning back home.
In late December, government forces and their allies took control of east Aleppo, bringing the whole city under state control in the biggest victory for Assad since the country’s conflict began in March 2011. The Khatib family returned to their hometown during the first week of January.
Having little money left to rent an apartment, they went back to their abandoned home in Ansari and fixed it as much as possible. The couple now live with their, daughter Rasha, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, Abdul-Hamid and Rimas.
Their apartment appears to be in relatively good shape compared with nearby housing units. The buildings on either side of theirs are uninhabitable. Most buildings in their area are either a pile of metal and stones, or so damaged they’re no longer suitable to live in. Their home now attracts attention from curious passersby as it’s the only apartment on the street with washed laundry hanging from the balcony.