Thread by @zpyarom

No words could describe what a family goes through knowing that their loved ones where in a disaster zone and they can't find them.
I'll never forget this night. And day. I'm up for 33 hours now because we were looking for my 23 years old father of 2 cousin, Simcha Diskind /1

After there was no answer from his phone for two hours, the phone went dead. So his sister, my cousin, started calling hospitals. So did his sister-in-law. On the meanwhile we shared a post with his details, hoping someone saw him and could tell us what's happening. /2

We desperately called and texted each other, still clinging to the thread of hope that he's stuck somewhere. Contributed to it the non-true report that they finished calling all families of the victims. So I figured: he's lost on the Meron mountain, or somewhere on the way. /3

When morning started to come, hope started to fade. A friend of his brother sent him a message, hinting that he knows something. This friend is on ZAKA which took care of the bodies. My cousin didn't want to here, being in denial. He went to the mornign prayer. /4

Then several things happened at once: ZAKA said no family was notified, and my cousin came back from prayer to find more friends waiting for him. The ZAKA message dropped our hopes. We were all getting crazy in disbelief.
Then his friends say they took care of my lost cousin. /5

They said they identified his face, and that he had his ID. And that he was transported to the hospital with all other bodies.
We didn't want to believe. I asked questions a 1000 times to make sure it's true.
But then we started asking how do we get to identify him. /6

Many phone calls flew back and forth across the country to Askans (community activists) who could connect his family to the right place.
Eventually his brother was told to go to Abu Kabir in Jaffa, to identify the body. Then it took 6.5 hours till they let them in to see him. /7

And now, 7.5 hours later, their PRINTER is not working so they can't issue a burying liscence, so we're still waiting for the body to be released so maybe we could bury him before Shabbat is we would like.
Those endless hours of freaking out, we'll never forget that. /end.for now

Addendum: Funeral will take place in Haifa at 6:15. Would be a very short one since Shabbat is an hour later.