In midst of Aleppo wreckage, a Syrian family returns home

ALEPPO // The street looks as if it was hit by an earthquake and the bombed-out building in a former rebel-held neighbourhood of Aleppo is deserted – except for the second-floor flat where Abdul-Hamid Khatib and his family live.

There is no electricity or running water. The 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 of a wood-burning heater.

Mr Khatib and his family are the only occupants of the six-storey building and they keep its main gate locked with a metal chain, fearing looters. At night, they fumble around their two-bedroom home with candles.

But the family has nowhere else to go.

The 56-year-old blacksmith has been jobless for months and cannot afford to pay rent. He was also worried that their flat in Aleppo’s north-eastern Ansari neighbourhood would be completely looted if they stayed away.

"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, Mr Khatib’s wife.

Life and war have been very unkind to the Khatib family. The eldest son Mohammed was killed in the bombardment of east Aleppo in 2013 and their granddaughter Hasnaa, 4, was killed a year later by a bullet as she played on the balcony of her parents’ flat. Their son Mahmoud died at work of severe burns while welding a metal container filled with gas.

Since rebels fighting to topple president Bashar Al Assad stormed east Aleppo in July 2012, the family had to leave their flat twice to move to safer areas, before returning back home. But in August last year, when government forces intensified their offensive on east Aleppo, an air strike near their home forced them to flee for the third time.

"It was so dangerous and our kids were terrified so we could not tolerate it anymore. We used to tell the gunmen to move away from here but they would not listen to us," Mr Khatib said.

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 Mr Al Assad since the country’s conflict began in March 2011.

The Khatib family – like many of east Aleppo’s residents – were taken to shelters in the village of Jibrin, just south of Aleppo, where they spent a week before returning to the city in the first week of January.

With little money to rent an apartment, they returned to their abandoned home in Ansari and repaired it as much as possible. They found many of their belongings looted including the refrigerator, stove, a microwave and seven gas cylinders. When asked who was behind the looting, Mr Khatib blamed both rebels and pro-government gunmen.

The couple now lives in the flat with their daughter Rasha, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, Abdul-Hamid and Rimas.

Their apartment appears in relatively good condition 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 are no longer habitable. Their home now attracts attention from curious passersby as it is the only flat on the street with washed laundry hanging from the balcony and wood smoke coming from the heater.

Thousands of other families from east Aleppo have returned to their homes because they have nowhere else to go.

Others come in every day to inspect their homes and take whatever they can carry with them – especially those in heavily damaged buildings. One family came to check on their home about 50 metres away and found it could collapse at any moment.

Despite everything, Mr Khatib is optimistic that the situation in his city can only get better. But his wife, Hasnaa, wishes they had fled Syria and joined the nearly four million refugees who settled in neighbouring countries, mostly Lebanon and Turkey.

"I feel life was so unjust to me. Although I am alive, I feel as if I am dead," she said, sitting on a plastic chair in her living room.

"I wish we left at the beginning of the crisis, even if we had to stay in the street."