There is no conversation in Akkar and Tripoli except about the death boat and its news. The incident of the boat sinking in the waters off the coast of Tartus has cast a heavy shadow over the general atmosphere in the north. Akkar and Tripoli are still under the influence of the event and the shock. In this tragedy, the regions of Tripoli, Akkar, and the Nahr al-Bared camp have shared the wounds and pains, receiving both the bodies of the victims and the survivors.
In a recent update, the Secretary-General of the High Relief Commission, Major General Mohamed Khair, announced that the bodies of the martyrs from the Ali Al-Akkari family, who were retrieved from the sea in Syria due to their drowning incident, have been found. The deceased include the father, the mother, and their four children, and the bodies will be handed over to their family in Akkar after being taken by the Lebanese Red Cross from the Syrian Red Crescent. The family and relatives headed towards the Lebanese-Syrian border at the Al-Arida crossing to receive their remains, in preparation for burying them in their hometown of Wadi Jamous in Akkar.
It is noteworthy that Ali Al-Akkari and his family were among the missing, and their relatives had visited Al-Basel Hospital in Tartus multiple times attempting to identify their bodies, without success. "Nidaa Al-Watan" learned from sources that the bodies of the Syrians who were passengers on the death boat will remain in Syria, even for those among the displaced Syrians who were on the boat, as their number is very small along with the survivors, since the majority of the Syrians were those who came from within Syrian territory and boarded the death boat.
Additionally, social media and WhatsApp groups circulated photos claimed to be from a Palestinian survivor of the boat sinking, Jihad Mishlawi. The photos indeed showed the extent of overcrowding inside the boat, with young men, women, and children piled on top of each other in a manner that disregarded even the most basic safety standards for families onboard, which reinforces the hypothesis that the boat indeed carried more than 160 passengers, as is presumed.
As time progresses concerning the sunken death boat, the hope of the remaining families who have not received their children's bodies and have not learned their fate diminishes. Eyewitnesses assert that the bodies are significantly disfigured, making it exceedingly difficult to identify them.
