A love story… Killed by blind hatred
Karam, a Syrian dentist working in Iraq, was preparing for one of the happiest moments of his life – his engagement to Nour Issa Nezha, a 23-year-old pharmacist from Baniyas, Syria. He suddenly found himself mourning her brutal murder, along with her family members, in a barbaric and unjustified massacre.
“We had been in love for five years and were planning to get engaged in a few months,” says Karam. But fate had a different opinion, and instead of celebrating their engagement, the young man found himself drowning in grief.
Brutal killing of all living things
Last Friday, which became known as Black Friday to the people of the coast, 7 March 2025, armed men stormed the Nour family home in the al-Qusour neighbourhood of Baniyas and executed everyone inside.
Noor, her sister Hazar, who was also a pharmacist, their brother Ibrahim, a doctor, and their mother Wahiba, were all killed in cold blood. Hazar’s husband, Ali,was seriously injured and remains in intensive care.
Their father, Issa, was the sole survivor, but not because he was excluded, but because he had previously travelled to their home village. The entire family was from the Alawite sect in Syria.
Individual cases or a collective tragedy?
The massacre in the al-Qusour neighbourhood of Baniyas, where Noor and her family were killed, was not an isolated incident, but part of a series of bloody massacres in the area. It was described by survivors and human rights reports as a sectarian cleansing campaign that targeted entire families from the Alawite sect.
The killings were systematic with victims, including children and women, executed inside their homes, in scenes reminiscent of the sectarian massacres that swept Syria during the war. The terrorist perpetrators, extremists, often chanted slogans such as “Alawites, they deserve to be killed”.
“To those who killed her, I say: I wish you had killed me instead of her. If only you knew how many good and innocent people you could have killed,” says Karam.
It is important to emphasise that the members of the family were not associated with any political or military activities, but were civilians inside their home when the killers broke into the apartment and carried out their crime.
“I was told about the massacre by one of Noor’s relatives,” says Karam, who feels helpless being away in Basra. “The gunmen killed everyone in the house, while Ali was seriously injured. We also heard horrible stories about what they did to their neighbours,” says Karam, “but I don’t know exactly who was killed and who wasn’t. The information is still unclear amidst the chaos.”
The tragedy deepens with the story of Hazar, Noor’s sister, newly married last November and now murdered by criminals. Her husband Ali is still fighting for his life in hospital. The last thing she wrote on Facebook was a simple but painful prayer: “God have mercy on us.”
Karam is trying to come to terms with his loss. The life he dreamed of with Noor was destroyed in an instant. His heart is broken and his dreams have been stolen.
Karam posted the video below, in which he mourns his fiancée and her family.
Some other photos circulated by relatives and friends of the deceased family
