Hawlo Abbas

Hawlo was born in Baalbeck, in a family of eleven. His family’s financial situation prevented him from going to school, and he left his village to Beirut for work, while he was still fourteen. Hawlo moved from one job to another until he was employed as a driver, by the KSS shipping company at the Port of Beirut.

Hawlo was loving, fair, God-fearing, and decent. He was the main provider for his elderly parents.

Hawlo wanted to be a martyr, according to his wife Ghadir, and God granted him his wish.

Like every other father, he dreamed of providing a good life for his daughter Zahraa (6) and his son Ahmad (4).

On the afternoon of August 4, around 6:00 PM, his son Ahmad was screaming “baba baba”, and he was saying “an airplane hit baba and baba is dead.” Ghadir was upset with her son, she told him she would call his dad and tell him what he was saying. She thought that Ahmad, like children his age, is making up stories. But when she started her phone, she saw all the news about an explosion at the Port of Beirut. She was shocked to read what her son was just saying.

At that moment she felt her husband died. She tried to call him but there was no network. She asked his brothers and friends to find his whereabouts, but they couldn’t find him.

Ghadir asked someone at the port to find her husband, and indeed, the next days, his remains were found. His wife recognized him from the sock he was wearing. The exploding ammonium nitrate that came in contact with his skin damaged it almost completely.

Hawlo was transferred to Al-Rasoul Al-Aazam Hospital, and from there to Baalbeck to be buried in his home town.