Palestinians search for their missing relatives in Syria policy
Ramallah- Telephone communications with the Palestinian Youssef Al-Awawda, from the city of Dura, in the south of the West Bank, are almost never interrupted, after information was published on social media sites related to his brother, who has been missing in Syria since the 1980s.
Al-Awawda told Al-Jazeera Net that with the start of the release of detainees, many rumors spread, “but we did not obtain correct information about my brother Ibrahim Hussein Issa Hammad Al-Awawda, who has been missing since 1983.”
He explained that although there is no confirmation or denial that his brother is among those released so far, what happened opens a window of hope for obtaining information about his fate after contact with him has been cut off for decades.
Ibrahim Hussein Issa Al-Awawda, or (Hammad), has been missing in Syria since 1985. Please share the post so it reaches the largest number of people.
Contact number for any possible information: +972 59-911-4000 pic.twitter.com/7qshTl7R7W– Tamer Awawdeh (@Tawawdeh_) December 9, 2024
Appeals
Al-Awawda’s family published leaflets and contact information on social media platforms in the hope of reaching even the tip of the thread to solve the mystery of his loss.
Youssef adds that Ibrahim was born in 1960, finished high school in 1979, then left the country to complete his university studies. He went to Jordan, then India, then returned to Jordan, then headed to Iraq and from there to France.
He pointed out that Ibrahim informed his family in his last contact with them that he was heading from France to Syria in 1983. Then there was no news of him, and after losing hope, the family went to human rights organizations in 1985 and informed them of his statement.
Al-Awawdeh continues that the family is dealing with Ibrahim as if he were alive, including dividing the inheritance. “His land and property are there in the hope that he will be alive and return to them,” and he appeals to the New Testament in Syria, human rights organizations, activists, and anyone who can provide information about him to contact the family or the Palestinian embassy in Syria, “whether among those released or in the records of detainees or deaths.”
In Saydnaya
For his part, Wael Awad, from the city of Tulkarm, says that the traces of his brother Noman Abdel Rahman Abdel Hafez Awad were lost in 1982, when he was arrested in the city of Daraa in southern Syria, while he intended to go to Lebanon to volunteer with the fighters during the Israeli invasion.
He added in his interview with Al Jazeera Net: “He was 20 years old, and the last information we received about him was in 1998, when a former detainee in Saydnaya prison informed us that he was with him in the same prison and was also arrested with him in Daraa.”
Awad continued that he and his father tried to go to Syria, find out news about him, and try to release him, but the Syrian authorities detained their passports for a month at the border crossing with Jordan, and refused them entry.
Today, he calls on everyone who has information or has met his brother to contact the official Palestinian authorities in Syria or the human rights and aid associations.
With the acceleration of the release of prisoners from the detention centers of the Syrian regime, after the opposition overthrew it, appeals spread rapidly on social media platforms, websites, and the websites of relevant human rights organizations, such as the “Action Group for the Palestinians of Syria,” and pages on social networking sites, such as the Yarmouk Camp page, requesting assistance in Providing information about detainees and missing persons.
Survivors are requested to help the families of missing persons if they see them or know any information about them
• Ziad Khalil Saleh, arrested in 2013, from the Hajabra area in the Damascus countryside• Muhammad Hilal Saleh, arrested in 2013, from the Hajabra area in the Damascus countryside
• Zaher Khalil Saleh, arrested in 2013, from the Hajabra area in the Damascus countryside
• hope… pic.twitter.com/ZlZ4PBuetf
— Action Group for the Palestinians of Syria (@actgroup_pal) December 8, 2024
333 missing
There is no accurate data available on the number of Palestinians detained or killed or missing in Syria over the decades, but the “Action Group for the Palestinians of Syria,” a human rights media organization that operates from London, has been documenting updates on the numbers of those killed, missing, and detained since 2011.
According to the organization’s documentation, 4,294 Palestinians were killed, and 3,085 were arrested until the fall of Bashar al-Assad, in addition to 333 missing, since 2011.
United Nations estimates indicate that there are about 438,000 refugees in Syria, 90% of whom are below the poverty line, including 245,000 internally displaced people, according to the same source.
Yesterday, Sunday, the Syrian opposition overthrew the Assad family regime and reached the capital, Damascus, while ousted President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia, at a time when Syrians from all governorates flocked to Umayyad Square in the center of the capital to celebrate the victory of the revolution and the liberation of the country from family rule that lasted for about 54 years.
