Mohamad Ali Abbas

Mohamad, the eldest, was born in 1974 in Beirut, when his father worked at the Port of Beirut. He grew up with three siblings between Beirut and Al-Saksakiya – South Lebanon, where his family moved when he was still a child. Mohamad dropped out of school because he was completely focused on football; he was a great defense player, and was famous on the local level.

He worked different jobs, from electricity, to aluminium, to batteries, and he was an expert in jobs requiring mechanical or manual skills. After he completed his compulsory military service, his father managed to find him a job at the department of security and safety at the Port of Beirut, twenty-three years ago. Throughout his career he was reputable and reliable for his decency and high ethics.

Mohamad's sportsmanship was evident in his character and attitude. He was peaceful and loving; a family man and the backbone of his little family, including his three children aged between six and fourteen.

On August 4, before the fire erupted, Mohamad was at work, sitting with his coworkers Imad Zahreddine, Tharwat Hoteit and Ziad El-Hajj at the port's fire department. When the fire was reported, Tharwat responded to extinguish the fire; Mohamad and Imad accompanied him, although they were not firefighters themselves. At 6:00 PM Mohamad received a call from his son, to which he answered gasping and told him he needed to go. His wife did not make anything of it, until she heard the huge explosion in her home in South Lebanon, she completely freaked out.

At 6:00 PM, his brothers were sitting in a café by the sea, and they were expecting Mohamad to show up at any moment, because he finished work early due to the coronavirus lockdown measures. When they heard the sound of the explosion coming from the seaside, they called him, but there was no answer.

His brother and another relative rushed to the explosion site, but they couldn’t get any information about Mohamad’s whereabouts. The family contacted hospitals and rescue teams and organizations, and heard contradictory information about his fate. After an agonizing wait, his brother received a call at 2:00 AM from Mohamad's supervisor, confirming they found him dead. Oddly enough, Mohamad was talking to his wife Nisrine, just a week earlier, about traveling abroad to secure a better future for their children when he suddenly mentioned martyrdom, and told her he wished he could die a martyr.

Mohamad is one of the many innocent victims of one of the century's biggest homicides. He died a martyr and left behind, a family, a wife, and three children forever mourning his loss.