16 Hours Under the Rubble… A Father Martyred and His Children Injured

A man was martyred and his children were injured after the family spent approximately 16 hours under the rubble, following shelling that targeted their home by the transitional government in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood of the city of Aleppo, at dawn on Tuesday, January 7.

According to local sources, the shelling was carried out at 3:34 a.m. and targeted a house in the western section of the neighborhood, causing it to collapse on its residents—six family members, most of them children—amid continuous shelling that prevented rescue teams and residents from reaching the site for long hours.

The sources reported that suicide drones continued to hover over the neighborhood in conjunction with the shelling, obstructing rescue attempts and forcing residents to wait until the intensity of the targeting subsided. After more than 16 hours, residents were able to pull the injured children from the rubble, while the father, Hassan Mohammad Hassan (42 years old), was found dead beneath the debris.

Jamal Kelli, a resident of the neighborhood who participated in the rescue efforts, said that the children’s voices could be heard from under the rubble, but the heavy shelling prevented approaching the site. He added: “Every time we tried to move forward, shells would fall again, forcing us to retreat to protect lives.”

In the same context, media sources reported that drones prevented journalists and correspondents from reaching the site of the targeting, while indiscriminate shelling of the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafieh, and Bani Zaid continued for 74 consecutive hours without interruption.

According to an initial toll, the attacks resulted in the martyrdom and injury of more than 75 civilians, with expectations that the number may rise due to the ongoing shelling and the difficulty of evacuation and rescue operations.

The tragedy of Hassan’s family is one of dozens of stories left behind by the shelling of residential neighborhoods, where civilian homes were turned into rubble in moments, amid continuous military escalation targeting populated areas.