In the Syrian coastal town of Jableh, Mohammed Daya has turned his farmland into a makeshift cemetery, with graves overwhelmed as more bodies are pulled from the rubble after Monday’s devastating earthquake.
The 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Syrian border, killing more than 22,000 people, including at least 3,377 in the war-torn Arab country.
“We can’t help the living, but we must at least respect the dead,” Daya told AFP from the farm-turned-cemetery, where dozens of people were hard at work digging graves in a field where they grew tomatoes and peppers.
The 47-year-old said he gave most of his farmland, which he had planned to sell later for construction, so that the dead could be buried.
Sixteen bodies have been buried in the field and they say they are ready to give the land back if necessary.
“I never thought this land would become a graveyard,” he said, his eyes swollen and red from crying.
Relatives of the deceased wrote the names of the dead by hand on cement blocks used as makeshift headstones.
Obituaries were plastered everywhere on the city walls.
– ‘Death has come again’ –
Jableh is located in government-held Latakia, a province that was one of the war-torn countries worst affected by the tremors.
The quake killed more than 500 people and damaged 100 buildings in the province, authorities said.
But there is little hope that rescuers, who have scoured 60 percent of the affected sites in the province, will find anyone alive under the flattened buildings.
Also Read: Aid for earthquake-hit Türkiye and Syria follows country politics
Experts say more than 90 percent of survivors are rescued within the first three days of emergency operations after an earthquake, on average.
Near the makeshift graves, many slept outside in the cold and worked alongside rescuers with hands, pots and pans to sift through the debris in the hope of finding their loved ones – dead or alive.
In the neighborhood of Rihawi, dozens of families anxiously await news of relatives still trapped in the collapsed structure, as bulldozers lift concrete slabs.
Standing in the middle of the destruction, Adam Shaabo waited for family members to be pulled out.
“I can’t forget his face,” he said, remembering his lifeless and crushed body.
Jableh has been relatively spared from the worst of Syria’s almost 12-year civil war, but has witnessed violent attacks and civilians have been killed in action, mostly alongside government forces.
“We thought we were saying goodbye to the big funeral,” he said, “but death has come to Jableh again.”
– ‘Dead Breath’ –
Syrian first responders, as well as rescuers from Lebanon and Russia, have been rummaging in the ruins in a losing race against time.
Moscow is one of Damascus’ main allies, and has two military bases in Syria: the airport in Hmeimim five kilometers (three miles) from Jableh; and the seaport of Tartus, about 60 kilometers to the south.
Lebanese rescuers pulled the body from under a concrete slab as relatives rushed to him, crying as they recognized their loved ones.
Also read: Ramaphosa, world leader sends condolences to Turkey and Syria earthquake victims
“We use primitive methods; we shout for any survivors and wait for a response,” said one Lebanese citizen, Ali Safieddine.
“Buildings fell like biscuits.”
In one neighborhood, residents took turns guarding abandoned and damaged buildings, while others were busy distributing bread to shelters.
Nearby, rescuer Jalal Daoud dug through the rubble hoping to catch survivors in the “last hours”, he told AFP.
“We are trying to work quickly … to catch life before it takes its last breath.”
NOW READ: WATCH: Baby boy born in earthquake rubble