ICC Note: Two Christians share their incredible experience of surviving in Homs, Syria through more than two years of siege, bombing, and sniper fire. The brother and sister were two of only about 30 civilians known to have survived through this time. They subsisted on scraps that they could find, turning leaves into a staple of their diet. Amidst the struggle to survive was the fear that someone would turn on them because of their religious identity. Yet, through this they have persevered.

05/13/2014 Syria (CNN) – It has been nearly a week since a truce between the Syrian government and rebel groups took effect in Homs, and as opposition fighters have left the Old Town area of the city, thousands of displaced residents have come back.

The streets of the district are packed with people carrying belongings out of the district or moving possessions in to return to their homes.

The people are usually busy and rarely joke or smile, but in the middle of this scene there was a tiny, thin and frail-looking woman who stood out. Her name is Zeinat Akhras and a group of people had gathered around her, hugging and kissing her, almost crying with joy.

Zeinat is one of fewer than 30 civilians known to have lived through the entire siege of Homs — more than two years of constant shelling, sniper fire and starvation.

“I am 49 years old and I weigh only 34 kilos (about 75 pounds),” Zeinat told me when I met her at a damaged church in Old Homs.

“The shelling was terrible, it was going on almost all the time. I got wounded on my arm and my shoulder once.”

Zeinat survived the siege with her brother Ayman. They remained in a little apartment, hoping it wouldn’t be flattened by an artillery shell, or that Islamist rebels would not kill the two Christians, as Christians are often perceived by the opposition to support the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

“They often accused me of supporting the government,” Ayman Akhras said, sitting in the apartment with his sister Zeinat.

“I told them — who am I supposed to support when I am stuck in here? I am not supporting anyone.”
Ayman and Zeinat devoted all of their energy to staying alive. Ayman ventured out into the dangerous streets almost every day, looking for material to burn in the little stove they have in the apartment.

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