Lebanese officials had minimized the chances that anyone could survive for so long among the rubble.
But even the weak hope of a miracle has stuck a country that is already recovering from the coronavirus pandemic and the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.
“I didn’t know I needed a miracle so much. Please, God, give Beirut this miracle it deserves,” said Selim Mourad, a 32-year-old filmmaker.
Lebanon has the equipment and experience to manage complex search and rescue operations, so it has received expert support from Chile, France and the United States.
Chileans, in particular, have been hailed as heroes through many Lebanese on social media, who compare their experience to the mediocre functionality of what are an absent state.
On Friday, the country a minute’s silence for the dead.