Galilee family holds out hope for son missing in Italy quake

L'AQUILA, Italy - Following the devastating earthquake Italy suffered Monday, family members here grew increasingly worried last night about the fate of Hussein Hamada, 22, of the Galilee village of Kabul, a medical student in this city, the capital of the Abruzzo region.

Hamada lived in the section of a dormitory that completely collapsed in the quake. Emergency crews at the scene said Monday chances were slim any survivors would emerge from the rubble. By afternoon, four bodies had been removed, but Israel's embassy in Rome said none of them had been identified as Israelis.

Hamada's father, Dr. Amin Hamada, and his mother Sana paced around their home waiting for the telephone to ring with any information on their son's whereabouts.

Friends of the second-year medical student, among the dozens of Israelis who study at the university, packed into the soccer stadium at the entrance to the city, eager for any scrap of information on Hamada's fate, while meanwhile making every effort to find a plane ticket home.

Still, family members are holding out hope for good news.

"My heart says he's alive but hurt, that's how I feel. I pray every minute for his safety," Hussein's mother said tearfully.

His father, a dentist, struggled to remain calm while rumors of the worst gathered force. "I haven't received any official information from anybody. We contacted a few students who live in the city - two of them are in the area of the dorms and are updating us all the time. I hope we get good news," he said.

Hisham, a medical student from Haifa, was on the third floor of a building next to the dormitories when the tremors began. His room was partially destroyed, and he was trapped for two hours before being extricated by firefighters. "It was terribly scary. My girlfriend, who was in the room with me, fainted twice," he said, still in the flip-flops and track suit he was wearing when the quake struck. All of his personal belongings, including his passport, lie under the rubble.

Samer, also a medical student, said he had not been caught by surprise. "There have been occasional quakes here for months. Even during the night before the big one, there was a 3.9-magnitute earthquake. We've become used to it. We didn't think about what could happen," he said.