Hundreds of fleeing families sleep on beaches and streets after Israel’s strikes shake Beirut
Lines of people trudged up to the mountains above the Lebanese capital, holding infants and a few belongings
Updated 29 September 2024
AP
BEIRUT: Smoke was still rising from Beirut’s southern suburbs Saturday morning, visible to many of the families who had fled their homes there the night before to escape Israel’s massive bombardment.
It had been a harrowing night — getting out amid earthshaking explosions, looking in vain for space in one of the overflowing schools-turned-shelters. By the morning, hundreds of families were sleeping in public squares, on beaches or in cars around Beirut.
Lines of people trudged up to the mountains above the Lebanese capital, holding infants and a few belongings.
Overnight, Israel unleashed a series of strikes on various parts of Dahiyeh, the predominantly Shiite collection of suburbs on Beirut’s southern edge where tens of thousands of residents live. The biggest blasts to hit Beirut in nearly a year of conflict killed the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, Friday.
The assault was part of a rapid escalation of Israeli strikes the past week that has killed more than 700 people in Lebanon. Israel has vowed to cripple Hezbollah and put an end to 11 months of its fire onto Israeli territory in what Nasrallah described as a “support front” for his ally Hamas in Gaza.
The newly displaced swell the numbers Beirut is absorbing
The people escaping Friday night’s mayhem joined tens of thousands who have fled to Beirut and other areas of southern Lebanon the past week to escape Israel’s bombardment.
For many residents of Dahiyeh, the forced evacuation was disconcertingly familiar.
Some were Lebanese who had lived through the bruising monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, when Israel leveled large parts of the Beirut suburbs. Others were Syrians who had taken refuge from the long civil war in their own country.
Fatima Chahine, a Syrian refugee, slept on the Ramlet Al-Bayda public beach in Beirut with her family and hundreds of strangers. The night before she, her husband and their two children had piled onto a motorcycle and raced out of Dahiyeh, with “bombing below us and strikes above us.”
“Thank God, no one was wounded,” she said.
The government has opened up schools in Beirut to take in the displaced. But Syrians have reported that some sites turn them away to reserve the few spaces for Lebanese. Chahine said her family came directly to the beach.
“We only want a place where our children won’t be afraid,” she said. “We fled from the war in Syria in 2011 because of the children and we came here, and now the same thing is happening again.”
Since Monday, some 22,331 Syrians in Lebanon have crossed back into Syria, along with 22,117 Lebanese, according to Lebanese authorities.
Chahine said returning is not an option for her family; she is from an opposition area and so could face reprisals from the Syrian government.
At the beach, the displaced were spread out over the sidewalk or in cars parked by the curb. Others were camped out in beach pagodas or on blankets in the sand.
“We spent more than three hours going in circles between schools and shelters and we didn’t find one with room,” said Talal Ahmad Jassaf, a Lebanese man who slept on the beach with his family. He said he is considering going to the relative safety of Syria. But he worries about airstrikes on the road between Beirut and Damascus. Some people are left without aid
The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said this week’s escalation had more than doubled the number of people displaced by the conflict in Lebanon. There are now over 211,000 people displaced, including some of the humanitarian workers who should be responding to the crisis, it said. Around 85,000 of them are sleeping in shelters, it said.
“Humanitarian capacities to respond have been severely overstretched,” it added.
Displaced people sleeping outside in Beirut largely told The Associated Press that they had not received assistance from any humanitarian organization.
A stadium in the seaside neighborhood of Manara owned by the Nejmeh soccer club opened its doors to the displaced, who spent the night sleeping on bleachers.
Among them was Mariam Darwish, her husband and five children. She fled her home in Dahiyeh earlier in the week when the first Israeli strikes hit there.
Darwish said they had received water from the soccer club but that no organization had brought food, blankets or other supplies.
“People are helping each other out, family and friends are getting things for each other,” she said.
She and her husband had fled during the 2006 war, when their oldest son was a baby, and returned to their home when the war ended. They hope their house will still be standing to return to this time, she said.
“We’re worried about our children and the schools, that they’ll lose out on their future,” she said. “What can we do? We can only say thank God.”
She added, “May the resistance be victorious.” At the time of the interview, Hezbollah had not yet confirmed Nasrallah’s death.
Despite their battered-down circumstances, others also struck a defiant tone.
Jamal Hussein fled Dahiyeh at 3 a.m. with his extended family amid ongoing bombing and spent the night sleeping on the seaside promenade in Beirut’s upscale Ain Mreisseh district.
“Of course we aren’t afraid for ourselves, but we have children,” he said. “We are steadfast and ready to sacrifice more than this.”
Greece confirms commitment to maintaining ceasefire agreement despite Israeli violations
Popular dissatisfaction grows over delay in compensation distribution by Hezbollah and Lebanese authorities
Updated 12 sec ago
NAJIA HOUSSARI
BEIRUT: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis emphasized in Beirut on Monday that implementing the ceasefire agreement to halt hostilities between Israel and Lebanon is crucial for the well-being and stability of the region.
The visiting prime minister also said Greece “and the international community are taking all necessary measures to uphold the ceasefire in southern Lebanon and to implement UN Resolution 1701, which safeguards Lebanese sovereignty.”
His statement came as the Israeli military once again violated the ceasefire by launching a drone to target a valley in the towns of Musayleh and Najariyah in the Sidon district of southern Lebanon, resulting in three injuries, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Mitsotakis met with Lebanese officials and welcomed the fall of the regime of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, stressing the importance of upholding human rights.
He said that the political process must encompass all groups and address all disparities and issues.
Mitsotakis expressed hope for “the return of millions of refugees to Syria with the stabilization of the country.”
The Israeli army, however, demolished homes in Naqoura following the incursion of its forces into the area with tanks.
An infantry unit conducted a sweep of Naqoura using heavy machine guns.
Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee reiterated a warning to Lebanese residents against returning to the border area where Israeli forces are present until further notice.
The Israeli army is expected to withdraw from the border area, which includes more than 50 towns, within 60 days from the commencement of the ceasefire that began 19 days ago.
Israeli forces continued to demolish homes and facilities, hindering the deployment of the Lebanese army, which entered the border town of Khiam in southern Lebanon.
In a meeting on Monday, a gathering of Lebanese Christians known as the Lady of the Mountain advanced the position that the region, including Lebanon, had entered a new era and that implementing the approved resolution on the cessation of hostilities is a crucial step toward building the state.
“The Lebanese people will no longer accept the coexistence of the Lebanese republic and illegitimate weapons,” the group said.
Meanwhile, areas hit by Israeli airstrikes in the south, the southern suburbs of Beirut, and the Baalbek-Hermel region are facing unrest as Lebanese authorities and Hezbollah are being blamed for delays in the reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure.
The Nabatieh Traders Association demanded compensation for the region’s workers and businesses.
The traders will hold a demonstration on Thursday in the city’s public square.
The association said a wide range of people were affected by the “Hezbollah-initiated war on the southern front, which escalated into an extensive and destructive Israeli war across various regions.”
Compensation for demolished and damaged homes, institutions, and agricultural lands represents one of the most urgent issues requiring attention, as estimated damages are significantly greater than those recorded following the 2006 war.
Damage assessment committees from Jihad Al-Bina — affiliated with Hezbollah — and the Council of South Lebanon, mandated by the Lebanese government, are surveying towns and villages in southern Lebanon to evaluate the extent of damage.
Those whose homes were destroyed entirely have received specific financial aid, including a rental allowance of $4,000 per year and a furniture allowance of $8,000.
However, Hezbollah is facing criticism for delaying the start of reconstruction efforts. Instead of taking immediate action, the party has requested that citizens with partially damaged homes repair them at their own expense. They can then submit invoices for compensation to Jihad Al-Bina, along with photographs documenting the damage.
During a meeting held in the south with engineers and surveyors, Jihad Al-Bina’s restoration coordinator, Hussein Kheir Al-Din, said that the initial compensation would cover repairs for glass, aluminum, solar panels, bricks, and exterior stones.
In far-eastern Lebanon, the town of Hermel has begun to bear the burden of new Syrian refugees who fled after the fall of Assad’s regime.
Hezbollah facilitated the entry of thousands of Syrians into Lebanon through illegal crossings, with many taking refuge in religious buildings.
Additionally, Lebanese families who had lived in Syria since Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian war in 2012 also returned.
In Beirut, senior official Hamid Al-Khafaf announced that he had visited several Syrian shelters in the Beqaa region, including those in Al-Qasr, Hermel, the Sayyida Khawla Shrine in Baalbek, and other centers in the Zahle district.
“We learned about their needs and listened to their problems. We have already addressed some of them and decided to provide food aid vouchers in the coming days,” he said.
Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah commented: “We are facing a difficult period, but we know how to overcome it.
“Israel is exploiting the opportunity that the 60 days present to carry out attacks and assassinations.
“At this stage, we say there are state and international resolutions.
“We also tell those who used to talk about the ability to protect Lebanon without the resistance to try their luck in this regard,” he said.
The MP stressed that Hezbollah was following up on the issue of Israeli violations with the government for it to assume its role through the institutions, the army, UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL, and the monitoring committee.
“All concerned parties bear this responsibility. Efforts are being exerted, but without leading to the desired result. Israel is taking advantage of the tense situation and the state of worry,” he added.
“We are monitoring the events and how they will stabilize. We want Syria to remain united and for its people to determine its fate and safety without it being under US hegemony and Israeli occupation.”
Family of Aysenur Eygi says Blinken offers no prospect of US inquiry into killing
Updated 1 min 26 sec ago
WASHINGTON: The family of a Turkish-born American human rights activist killed by Israel in the occupied West Bank pleaded with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday for a US probe into her killing but got no promises, the woman’s husband said. Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was shot dead on Sept. 6 as she took part in a protest march in the town of Beita against Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank. Speaking to reporters after meeting with the top US diplomat, Hamid Ali said Blinken was attentive but gave no assurances that Washington would carry out its own investigation and urged Eygi’s relatives to wait for Israel to finish its inquiry. “He was very deferential to the Israelis,” Ali said of Blinken. “It felt like he was saying his hands were tied and they weren’t able to really do much.” There was no clear timeline on when Israel would conclude its investigation, Ali said. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Blinken told the family that Israel had informed the United States in recent days that it was finalizing their probe and that the State Department would promptly share any findings with the family. “With respect to a United States investigation... that would be in the remit of the Justice Department,” Miller said. Israel has acknowledged its troops shot Eygi, but says it was an unintentional act during a demonstration that turned violent. Her family believes she was targeted as an activist. Although Washington has criticized Eygi’s killing and a surge of attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank as Israel wages war on the Palestinian Hamas group in Gaza, the US has announced no major policy change toward Israel. The International Court of Justice and most countries say Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank are illegal. Israel denies this, citing historical and biblical ties to the area.
Ten years after the downfall and death of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, the country remains plagued by division and instability
Updated 5 min 27 sec ago
AFP
TRIPOLI: Libyans watched the fall of Syria’s Bashar Assad with a mixture of apprehension and hope, wishing “their brothers” in the Levant a better outcome than their own.
Ten years after the downfall and death of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, the country remains plagued by division and instability.
“It’s now been 14 years since the people of Syria have been waiting for their turn to come,” said 47-year-old history and geography teacher Al-Mahdiya Rajab.
“Their Arab Spring was stopped in its tracks” in 2011, she said.
“At last, they have been delivered from more than half a century of tyranny.”
After a lightning 11-day offensive, a coalition dominated by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group in Syria swept into Damascus to end more than 50 years of rule by the Assad clan.
As in Libya in October 2011, when the death of Qaddafi was announced after he had ruled for 42 years, Syrians took to the streets to celebrate the “victory of the revolution.”
Residents of Libya’s capital, Tripoli, like 55-year-old activist Sami Essid, drew comparisons between Syria and the first days of the post-Qaddafi era.
“In the beginning, there was hope,” he said.
“The people were satisfied, peaceful, and happy.”
In 2012, Libya held its first-ever free election, choosing 200 national congress members or parliament members. This was followed in 2013 by municipal elections. Both polls were considered to have been a success.
But then, in August 2014, after weeks of violence, a coalition of militias seized Tripoli in the west of the country and installed a government, forcing the elected parliament into exile in the east.
Despite Fayez Al-Sarraj being appointed premier in December 2015 under a UN-mediated deal, the east-west split only deepened.
In parallel, armed militias and foreign interference mushroomed.
Essid said the main thing Libya and Syria have in common is “the people rising against injustice, tyranny, and dictatorship.”
But in Libya, he said: “We discovered that the struggle for power and the country’s riches were the objective all along.”
“We hope we will not see division and militias emerge in Syria, as in Libya,” he said.
“The danger in Syria is that there are different faiths, and this can lead to power struggles and communities being divided.”
Today, Libya has two governments. It is divided between a UN-recognized government based in Tripoli and a rival administration in the east, backed by Khalifa Haftar, who also controls the south.
“Now we know the outcome of the revolution in Libya,” Essid said.
“But no one knows what will happen in Syria after the revolution there.”
However, for civil society member Motaz Ben Zaher, “although they both aimed to overthrow a regime, there is no real common ground between the Libyan and Syrian revolutions.”
“The contexts differ profoundly, whether in terms of the scale of international intervention or geography,” said the 50-year-old.
How Security Council veto power politics has eroded UN’s credibility
Structure with five permanent members seen as unsuitable by many in today’s multipolar world order
The UN’s paralysis over the Syria and Gaza conflicts has renewed debate about need for systemic reforms
Updated 46 min 15 sec ago
RUA’A ALAMERI
LONDON: When the US vetoed another UN Security Council resolution in November calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, it sparked global outrage.
Critics said the US decision, which went against the 14 other Security Council members, would only prolong the suffering of civilians in the territory and exacerbate violence in the Middle East.
But it had another far-reaching impact that may come back to haunt Washington. The veto further undermined the credibility of the Security Council and sparked renewed calls for it to be restructured.
Inspired by the Oscar-nominated film "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri", three billboards circle the United Nations on February 22, 2018 for three hours to demand action on Syria in advance of a Security Council vote in New York. (AFP)
The organization, which is supposed to be the world’s premier body for maintaining international peace and security, has become paralyzed by the interests of its permanent members, hindering its ability to address global crises.
Founded in 1946, soon after the Second World War, the makeup of the Security Council has remained largely unchanged. The five permanent members, the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China, are allowed to use veto power to block resolutions even if they are outnumbered in votes.
It is now widely perceived as an ineffective relic of the post-war global order, that does not represent the interests of the world’s population and, most importantly, fails to help those suffering most amid the world’s conflicts.
INNUMBERS
• 45k+
Lives claimed by Israeli military operations against Palestinian militants in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.
• 26%
Share of world’s current population by five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
• 90%
Proportion of Gaza’s population displaced by the Israel-Hamas conflict.
• 8
UNSC resolutions related to Gaza war that have been vetoed by the US.
• 49
UNSC resolutions related to Israel vetoed by the US since 1970.
“What we’ve seen in Gaza is that the UN has become an increasingly politicized body, paralyzed by geopolitical rivalries,” Simon Mabon, director of the SEPAD Peace and Conflict Research Center at Lancaster University, told Arab News.
A man runs with the body of a child victim that was rescued from the rubble following Israeli bombardment on the four-storey Muqat family house in the Zarqa neighbourhood in the north of Gaza City on October 26, 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
“This is not new. It has been a pattern since the UN was established. The UN Security Council’s structure, with veto power, allows its members to view decisions through the lens of their own strategic priorities, rather than a broader commitment to humanitarian ideals.”
The five permanent members with veto power reflect the recognition of the US and Soviet Union as the main victors of the Second World War, alongside the UK.
“The US pushed for China’s inclusion, while the UK advocated for France to create a European counterbalance to potential German or Soviet threats,” said Ephrem Kossaify, UN correspondent at Arab News.
Ambassador Robert Wood, Alternate Representative of the U.S. for Special Political Affairs in the UN, raises his hands to veto a draft resolution during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question at the UN headquarters on November 20, 2024 in New York City. (AFP)
“However, this structure has remained unchanged since then, leading to mounting calls for Security Council reforms to reflect the realities of today’s world order.”
The Security Council can impose binding decisions on all 193 member states to maintain peace. Its five permanent members, along with 10 rotating members elected by the General Assembly, assess security threats.
In recent years, competing interests among members have hindered effective responses to global crises like the war in Syria, COVID-19, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and, most recently, the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The Security Council struggled with this almost as soon as it was formed. With the world entering the Cold War, the rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union permeated through global hotspots.
As a result, very little got done. The Soviet Union applied 120 vetoes — far more than any other member — up until its dissolution in 1991. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, just 18 peacekeeping missions were authorized between 1948 and 1989.
Since 1991, by contrast, 48 peacekeeping missions have been approved by the Security Council.
A young Palestinian girl reacts in the courtyard of the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City after the bodies of victims were transported there, following an Israeli strike that hit a school-turned-shelter in the Al-Shati refugee camp on November 7, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas militant group. (AFP)
From 1970 onward, when it first used its veto power, the US became the primary permanent member to block Security Council votes, deploying the tactic at least 85 times. More than half of those vetoes were to stop resolutions related to Israel.
In recent years, Russia has also used its veto regularly, particularly with regard to the Syrian civil war, where it defended President Bashar Assad, and the Ukraine conflict.
Vetoes are a potent tool that often reflect national interests, alliances, and geopolitical strategies. For the US and Russia, the veto has been a key instrument to protect its strategic partners and advance its broader foreign policy goals.
Michael Lynk, Former UN human rights special rapporteur on Palestine
Another big argument for reform of the Security Council is that the world’s demographics have changed since 1946. At the time of its founding, the five permanent members accounted for more than half of the world’s population. Now they represent just 26 percent.
The body is therefore heavily skewed toward Europe and the West, discounting the growing populations, wealth, and influence of the emerging economies of Asia, Africa, and South America.
“The use of vetoes by the five permanent members on the Security Council is a relic of the end of the Second World War,” Michael Lynk, the former UN human rights special rapporteur on Palestine, told Arab News.
There is a global majority in support of Palestine.
Michael Lynk, Former UN human rights special rapporteur on Palestine
“It doesn’t reflect today’s power distribution or the extraordinary, large voice that the Global South has in the General Assembly.”
This imbalance has been laid bare by the Gaza conflict, which Lynk said has highlighted the deep global divide.
Palestinian civil defence members hand over to each other a child that was rescued following Israeli bombardment on the four-storey Muqat family house in the Zarqa neighbourhood in the north of Gaza City on October 26, 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
“The Israeli war on Gaza exposes an extraordinary fault line between the Global North and the Global South,” he said. “Overwhelmingly, the Global South supports Palestine in UN votes, while the Global North abstains or opposes.
“There is a global majority in support of Palestine, but the power dynamics of the Global North, led by the US alliance with Israel, override that majority.”
In the case of Gaza, the US vetoed the ceasefire resolution on Nov. 20 in support of Israel, its key ally in the Middle East. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, it marked the 49th time the US has vetoed a Security Council resolution related to Israel.
Palestinians walk in a devastated neighbourhood due to Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis on December 2, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
Beyond diplomatic backing, the US provides Israel with approximately $3 billion annually in military aid.
But the veto risks alienating other key US allies in the Middle East and damaging Washington’s diplomatic standing, particularly with the Gulf Cooperation Council, which recently called for an end to Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
The resolution called for an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the unconditional release of all hostages seized during the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023, and unrestricted humanitarian aid.
A Palestinian woman reacts as she stands amid the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli strike on the Shujaiyah neighbourhood in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on November 30, 2024, during the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas militant group. (AFP)
It aimed to address the humanitarian crisis by ensuring access to essential services like food, water and medical care. It would have forced Israel to stop restricting aid access to the territory, which has been pulverized by 14 months of military operations that have killed almost 45,000 Palestinians, including combatants.
In vetoing the resolution, the US argued that a ceasefire without preconditions could enable Hamas to regroup and continue to attack Israel. Robert Wood, the US deputy ambassador to the UN, criticized the resolution’s failure to explicitly link the ceasefire to the release of Israeli hostages.
“That is false,” said Lynk. The resolution, he added, did in fact link the ceasefire to the release of hostages, and even did so in the same paragraph. After using its veto, the US was accused of enabling Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Since the conflict began, the Security Council has voted on 12 resolutions. Of these, eight were vetoed — six by the US — and on four occasions America was the only permanent member to vote against.
“The pattern highlights the US’s role as a diplomatic shield for Israel,” said Lynk. “In practice, the US blocks resolutions critical of Israel or allows them to pass without ensuring their implementation.”
In the Gulf, Saudi Arabia and Qatar said the veto showed the need for reform of the Security Council.
The body’s failure to take decisive action on Gaza reflects the broader issues plaguing global governance. Even UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres accepts this assessment.
In September he told Arab News: “We have no real power, let’s be honest. The body of the UN that has some power is the Security Council, and you know, the Security Council is paralyzed.”
Kossaify warned that such paralysis erodes public confidence in the UN.
“When the person in the street sees the Security Council unable to act in the most pressing situations that are threatening peace and security due to one member’s use of the prerogative, they lose faith in the entire organization,” he said.
Mabon of Lancaster University said the inability of the Security Council to press for a ceasefire showed that “strategic decisions are trumping humanitarian needs and interests, which I think is emblematic of the nature of global politics right now.
“This is a colossal failure of the global project, a colossal failure of world nations, and a stain on humanity.”
The international community’s response to Gaza highlights the growing consensus that reforms are needed in multilateral institutions like the UN.
In the years ahead, the effectiveness and legitimacy of the UN will continue to be debated, as the role of major powers in shaping global diplomacy is increasingly scrutinized.
Lynk suggests reforms that would allow the UN General Assembly to override a Security Council veto through a supermajority vote would introduce “democratic oversight to counter the P5’s stranglehold.”
The problem, of course, would be getting the permanent five members to consent to reforms that erode or remove their veto powers. “But reforms like this are worth fighting for,” said Lynk.
What is clear is that in today’s geopolitical landscape, the failure of the Security Council to protect lives in Gaza is likely to hasten moves towards overhauling the body that is meant to maintain international peace.
‘We’re all Syrians’: Soldiers hand in weapons, hope for quiet lives
Updated 16 December 2024
AFP
LATAKIA: When Syria’s new government put out a call on social media for soldiers and police to lay down their arms and register with the authorities, Kamal Merhej was happy to oblige.
“I don’t like the army, I want to get back on track with my life without anyone to give me orders,” the 28-year-old told AFP.
He spent nine years in the army, posted to the capital Damascus, and said he was now happy to be back in his home city of Latakia on the Mediterranean coast.
Latakia is located in the heartland of former president Bashar Assad’s Alawite sect, and Merhej was among several hundred servicemen waiting to register with the country’s new rulers.
Assad was ousted after a lightning offensive spearheaded by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) that wrested from his control city after city until the rebels reached Damascus.
After the army fled the offensive, Syria’s new rulers announced an amnesty for conscripts while vowing to bring people who had committed serious crimes to justice.
Now, the interim government is registering former conscripts and soldiers and asking them to hand over their weapons.
After starting the process in the central city of Homs on Saturday, they set up offices in Latakia on Sunday.
Some 400 men showed up on the first day, according to 26-year-old Mohammed Mustafa, a fighter from the opposition stronghold of Idlib who was overseeing the operation.
“But there will be more today (Monday), we have drafted in more staff to speed up operations,” he said.
The men entered one by one, their identity cards in hand, and each took a number.
They stood next to the wall, had their photos quickly snapped on smartphones, before being directed to a bank of desks where they gave more details.
By mid-morning, the number was already at 671.
“In total, we are expecting at least 10,000 people, maybe more... we are in the region of the Assads,” said Mustafa, dressed in fatigues, a black cap and face mask.
He said the operation was running smoothly.
“We issue them a three-month permit for their protection and to give us time to investigate their past,” he said.
“If we find serious crimes they will be transferred to the judicial authorities.”
Soldiers, police and a few civilians came to surrender their weapons and in return they were given receipts.
A white-haired man approached the window and unpacked a veritable arsenal from plastic bags before leaving with his receipt.
Pistols, automatic rifles, ammunition, grenades and even a grenade launcher packed into a garbage bag piled up at the back of the room.
Like others in the queue, police officer Mohammed Fayoub said he wanted to get registered as soon as possible.
Clutching the receipt for the pistol he handed in, the 37-year-old, originally from Latakia, said he hoped to return to his job in Hama in central Syria.
“They behave well, they try to be polite. I want to be ready when they call me,” he said of the new administration.
“We’re all humans, all Syrians.”
There were nods of agreement from others waiting in the queue.
“We are tired of the war. We want to live in a peaceful, civilized country,” said a young man.
He lowered his voice to say he belonged to the Alawite minority, the same group as the Assad family.
“We need security, only security,” he said.
Hassun Nebras, 37, a mechanic in the army in Homs, said all he wanted was to restart civilian life and be with his children.
“We did what we were asked,” he said of his previous job. “We didn’t want to, but we had no choice.”
