Yesterday afternoon, the delegation of the Muslim Scout Association in Lebanon, which includes 34 members of the Association, 13 members of the Lebanese Civil Defense, arrived at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut, who had left last week to Turkey to assist in relief and rescue operations as a result of the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey. .
At the airport, Youssef Al-Mallah from the Civil Defense team spoke and said: “We very much appreciate this reception for us at the airport. The youth went to Turkey answering the call of duty when you addressed them with the call, and we as a team in the Civil Defense worked in both Syria and Turkey after the earthquake that struck The two countries, and when the cry was launched through the “Bint Jbeil” website, our answer was that it was necessary for the Lebanese to hear the call and respond to it, and we made a promise to me and all the youth in this team, that we would not return from Turkey unless we brought Muhammad and Elias with us, and we carried out this mission, and they were returned To Lebanon before we return to Lebanon.
Al-Mallah thanked the Lebanese embassy in Turkey, and said: “Now is not the time to talk out of respect for the martyrdom of Muhammad, Elias, Lynn Al-Kaddour, and many of the Syrian and Turkish brothers whom we helped.”
He added, “We did not accomplish anything and we are not heroes. We answered the call of duty only when duty called us, and we volunteered for this task in a personal capacity to help people.”
The navigator addressed the family of Muhammad and Elias, saying: “We went there with our morals that we were brought up in our homes and with our spontaneity, and it is a message to every Lebanese who is listening to us now. .
He added: “These young men did not have equipment, but their hands were a chisel, their fingers a hammer, and their determination was high. The Turks and 40 foreign international teams praised the efforts of this team and praised them.”
The navigator described moments in which they worked to retrieve the bodies of Elias and Muhammad from under the rubble, in light of the great difficulties faced by the work team. He said: «I do not like to use the word difficult task, but there is something that definitely needs effort, and when we were carrying out our humanitarian mission, two earthquakes of 4.7 occurred, which made the building in which we work tilt down about a meter and a half, and we received several warnings not to enter The building, due to the seriousness of its collapse, so we put up curtains to continue our work so that no one can see us. We also dug tunnels, and we worked about 36 consecutive hours to get to Muhammad’s body, and when we found the body, it took another 18 hours to pull it out.”
The navigator said that he “may not reveal a secret if he said that if we returned from Turkey empty-handed, without being able to return the two bodies for burial and honoring them, it would have been better for us to retire from the civil defense work, because it was possible for someone else to carry out such a task.”
In the evening, a Turkish Airlines plane arrived at Rafic Hariri International Airport, carrying the body of the Lebanese youth, Mohammed Al-Mohammed, who died in the earthquake that struck Antakya in Turkey. Then to slavery in Akkar.