DAMASCUS: Hours before militant forces seized Damascus and toppled his government on Sunday, Syrian president Bashar Assad was already out of the country, telling hardly anyone, five former officials told AFP.
The night before, Assad had even asked his close adviser Buthaina Shaaban to prepare a speech — which the ousted leader never gave — before flying from Damascus airport to Russia’s Hmeimim air base in Syria, and from there out of the country.
Assad left even “without telling... his close confidants in advance,” a former aide told AFP, requesting anonymity for security reasons.
“From the Russian base, a plane took him to Moscow.”
“His brother Maher,” who commanded the Syrian army’s feared Fourth Brigade, “heard about it by chance while he was with his soldiers defending Damascus. He decided to take a helicopter and leave, apparently to Baghdad,” added the former aide.
Other top officials in Assad’s government and sources told AFP what happened in the final hours of the iron-fisted leader’s 24-year rule.
All spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
When Islamist-led militant forces launched their offensive in Syria’s north on November 27, Assad was in Moscow, where his wife Asma has been treated for cancer.
Two days later, when their son Hafez was defending his doctoral thesis at a Moscow university, the whole family were there, but not Bashar, according to a presidential palace official.
On November 30, when Assad returned from Moscow, Syria’s second city of Aleppo was no longer under his government’s control.
The following week, the militants took Hama and Homs in quick succession, before eventually reaching the capital.
Another palace official said he did not see Assad the day before Damascus fell last Sunday.
“On Saturday Assad didn’t meet with us. We knew he was there, but did not have a meeting with him,” said the top official.
“We were at the palace, there was no explanation, and it caused great confusion at the senior levels and on the ground,” he said.
“Actually, we had not seen him since the fall of Aleppo, which was very strange.”
During that fateful week, Assad called a meeting of the heads of Syria’s intelligence services to reassure them.
But the longtime leader did not show up, and “Aleppo’s fall shocked us,” said the same top palace official.
Hama was next to fall into militant hands.
“On Thursday, I spoke at 11:30 am with troops in Hama who assured me the city was under lockdown and not even a mouse could make it in,” an army colonel told AFP.
“Two hours later they received the order not to fight, and to redeploy in Homs to the south,” added the officer of the next strategic city sought by the militants on their way to Damascus.
“The soldiers were helpless, changing clothes, throwing away their weapons and trying to head home. Who gave the order? We don’t know.”
The governor of Homs told a journalist that he had asked the army to resist. But no government forces defended the city.
On Saturday morning, someone in the halls of power in Damascus brought up the idea of Assad making a speech.
“We started to set up the equipment. Everything was ready,” said the first palace official.
“Later on we were surprised to learn that the speech had been postponed, maybe to Sunday morning.”
According to him, top officials and aides were unaware that while this was happening, the Syrian army had already begun destroying its archives by setting them on fire.
Still on Saturday, at around 9:00 p.m. (1800 GMT), “the president calls his political adviser Buthaina Shaaban to ask her to prepare a speech for him, and to present it to the political committee which is meant to meet on Sunday morning,” said a senior official close to Assad.
“At 10:00 p.m. she calls him back, but he no longer picks up the phone.”
That evening, Assad’s media director Kamel Sakr told journalists: “The president is going to deliver a statement very soon.”
But then Sakr, too, stopped answering his phone, as did interior minister Mohammed Al-Rahmoun.
The palace official said he stayed in his office until 2:30 am on Sunday. Within less than four hours, the militants were to announce that Assad was gone.
“We were ready to receive a statement or a message from Assad at any moment,” said the top palace official.
“We could have never imagined such a scenario. We didn’t even know whether the president was still at the palace.”
At around midnight, the palace official had been told that Assad needed a cameraman for Sunday morning.
“That reassured us that he was in fact still there,” he said.
But just before 2:00 am, an intelligence officer called to say all government officials and forces had left their offices and positions.
“I was shocked. It was just the two of us in the office. The palace was almost empty, and we were totally confused,” said the official.
At 2:30 am he left the palace.
In the city center, “arriving at Umayyad Square, there were plenty of soldiers fleeing, looking for transportation,” he said.
“There were thousands of them, coming from the security compound, the defense ministry and other security branches. We found out that their superiors had ordered them to flee.”
The official said it was a “frightening” scene.
“Tens of thousands of cars leaving Damascus, and even more people marching on the road on foot. It was that moment I realized everything was lost and that Damascus had fallen.”
A palace in shock: Bashar Assad’s final moments in Syria
https://arab.news/mtcrb
A palace in shock: Bashar Assad’s final moments in Syria
- “His brother Maher,” who commanded the Syrian army’s feared Fourth Brigade, “heard about it by chance while he was with his soldiers defending Damascus
- He decided to take a helicopter and leave, apparently to Baghdad,” added the former aide
Netanyahu says Israel will not proceed with Gaza ceasefire until it gets hostage list
- Israel reserves right to resume war with American support, warns Netanyahu
- Statement comes days after US, other states broker hostage and ceasefire deal
JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that Israel reserves the right to resume fighting in Gaza with US support, as he pledged to bring home all hostages held in the Palestinian territory.
“We reserve the right to resume the war if necessary, with American support,” Netanyahu said in a televised statement, a day before a ceasefire is set to take effect.
“We are thinking of all our hostages ... I promise you that we will achieve all our objectives and bring back all the hostages.
“With this agreement, we will bring back 33 of our brothers and sisters, the majority (of them) alive,” he said.
He said the 42-day first phase, which starts on Sunday, was a “temporary ceasefire.”
“If we are forced to resume the war, we will do so with force,” Netanyahu said, adding that Israel had “changed the face of the Middle East” since the war began.
Israeli forces start withdrawing from areas in Gaza ahead of ceasefire, say pro-Hamas media
- Gaza ceasefire and release of hostages set to begin with 3 females on Sunday afternoon
- Hamas hostages to be released in return for 30 Palestinian prisoners each
JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Israeli forces started withdrawing from areas in Gaza’s Rafah to the Philadelphi corridor along the border between Egypt and Gaza ahead of the start of the ceasefire agreement, pro-Hamas media reported early on Sunday.
A ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas is set to come into effect on Sunday morning with a hostage release to follow hours later, opening the way to a possible end to a 15-month war that has upended the Middle East.
The agreement followed months of on-off negotiations brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, and came just ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump.
The three-stage ceasefire will come into effect at 0630 GMT on Sunday.
Its first stage will last six weeks, during which 33 of the remaining 98 hostages — women, children, men over 50, the ill and wounded — will be released in return for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
They include 737 male, female and teen-aged prisoners, some of whom are members of militant groups convicted of attacks that killed dozens of Israelis, as well as hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza in detention since the start of the war.
Three female hostages are expected to be released on Sunday afternoon through the Red Cross, in return for 30 prisoners each.
After Sunday’s hostage release, lead US negotiator Brett McGurk said, the accord calls for four more female hostages to be freed after seven days, followed by the release of three further hostages every seven days thereafter.
During the first phase the Israeli army will pull back from some of its positions in Gaza and Palestinians displaced from areas in northern Gaza will be allowed to return.
US President Joe Biden’s team worked closely with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to push the deal over the line.
As his inauguration approached, Trump had repeated his demand that a deal be done swiftly, warning repeatedly that there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages were not released.
Post-war Gaza?
But what will come next in Gaza remains unclear in the absence of a comprehensive agreement on the postwar future of the enclave, which will require billions of dollars and years of work to rebuild.
And although the stated aim of the ceasefire is to end the war entirely, it could easily unravel.
Hamas, which has controlled Gaza for almost two decades, has survived despite losing its top leadership and thousands of fighters.
Israel has vowed it will not allow Hamas to return to power and has cleared large stretches of ground inside Gaza, in a step widely seen as a move toward creating a buffer zone that will allow its troops to act freely against threats in the enclave.
In Israel, the return of the hostages may ease some of the public anger against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government over the Oct. 7 security failure that led to the deadliest single day in the country’s history.
But hard-liners in his government have already threatened to quit if war on Hamas is not resumed, leaving him pressed between Washington’s desire to see the war end, and his far-right political allies at home.
And if war resumes, dozens of hostages could be left behind in Gaza.
Mideast shockwaves
Outside Gaza, the war sent shockwaves across the region, triggering a war with the Tehran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah movement and bringing Israel into direct conflict with its arch-foe Iran for the first time.
More than a year later, the Middle East has been transformed. Iran, which spent billions building up a network of militant groups around Israel, has seen its “Axis of Resistance” wrecked and was unable to inflict more than minimal damage on Israel in two major missile attacks.
Hezbollah, whose huge missile arsenal was once seen as the biggest threat to Israel, has been humbled, with its top leadership killed and most of its missiles and military infrastructure destroyed.
In the aftermath, the decades-long Assad regime in Syria was overturned, removing another major Iranian ally and leaving Israel’s military effectively unchallenged in the region.
But on the diplomatic front, Israel has faced outrage and isolation over the death and devastation in Gaza.
Netanyahu faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant on war crimes allegations and separate accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice.
Israel has reacted with fury to both cases, rejecting the charges as politically motivated and accusing South Africa, which brought the original ICJ case as well as the countries that have joined it, of antisemitism.
The war was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. More than 400 Israeli soldiers have been killed in combat in Gaza since.
Israel’s 15-month campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health ministry figures, which do not distinguish between fighters and civilians, and left the narrow coastal enclave a wasteland of rubble.
Health officials say most of the dead are civilians. Israel says more than a third are fighters.
Houthis warn of ‘consequences’ for any attacks on Yemen during Gaza ceasefire
- An initial 42-day truce in the Israel-Hamas war is scheduled to begin at 0630 GMT Sunday
- “The American aircraft carrier was forced to leave the theater of operations,” the rebels’ statement said
SANAA: Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed an attack on an American aircraft carrier on Sunday and warned of “consequences” for any retaliation during the coming Gaza ceasefire.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces warn the enemy forces in the Red Sea of the consequences of any aggression against our country during the ceasefire period in Gaza,” the rebels said in a statement.
“They will confront any aggression with specific military operations against those forces without a ceiling or red lines.”
An initial 42-day truce in the Israel-Hamas war is scheduled to begin at 0630 GMT Sunday.
The Houthis, who have attacked shipping in the Red Sea throughout the war in Gaza, said they targeted the USS Harry S. Truman and other “warships” with drones and cruise missiles.
“The American aircraft carrier was forced to leave the theater of operations,” the rebels’ statement said.
Part of Iran’s “axis of resistance,” the Houthis have repeatedly launched missile and drone attacks on Israel since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023, claiming solidarity with the Palestinians.
They have also waged a harassment campaign against shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, severely disrupting trade routes.
On Friday, the Yemeni rebels warned they would keep up their attacks if Israel did not respect the terms of the ceasefire with Hamas.
Hope and tears as youngest Israeli hostage turns two
- “Today, I tried to write a birthday message for Kfir for the second time,” his aunt Ofri Bibas Levy said
- Hamas said in November 2023 that the two boys and their mother were killed in an Israeli air strike, but the Israeli military has not confirmed their deaths
TEL AVIV: Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv to demand freedom for hostages held in Gaza, anxious the ceasefire deal would collapse, with many dwelling on the fate of Kfir Bibas, the youngest captive whose second birthday fell on Saturday.
“Today, I tried to write a birthday message for Kfir for the second time,” his aunt Ofri Bibas Levy said. “A message for a child who cannot celebrate... A child trapped in hell. A child who might not even be alive. But no words come out, only tears.”
Taken alongside his now four-year-old brother Ariel and his mother and father, Shiri and Yarden, he has become a symbol of the suffering of the hostages.
“I have two orange ballons on my car,” said Sigal Kirsch in Tel Aviv’s “Hostage Square.” The color has become symbolic of the Bibas boys, both of whom are red-heads.
“I don’t have the words,” she said, visibly overcome with emotion.
Hamas said in November 2023 that the two boys and their mother were killed in an Israeli air strike, but the Israeli military has not confirmed their deaths.
Coming together to protest barely 12 hours before the first three hostages are due to be released, many couldn’t bring themselves to believe after so much false hope that the ordeal of the hostages might finally be over.
“Once they cross the (Gaza) border and they will be rejoined with their families then maybe we can breathe again,” said Shahar Mor Zahiro, the nephew of slain hostage Avraham Munder.
Anxiety was the overwhelming mood.
“This past week was hell,” said Kirsch, who had been every week to the gatherings at Hostage Square, across the road from Israeli military headquarters.
“On Tuesday we were sure that the deal would be signed... and it took until last night. So we’re very, very anxious,” she said.
The deal agreed between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, via mediators, is broken into three phases.
But, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under pressure from far-right elements of his government opposed to a ceasefire, protesters and families of the hostages expressed fears that the deal would collapse.
“In one sense (the mood) is a little more hopeful, and in another sense, it’s very sad. Because for the people who aren’t in the first phase, I can’t imagine how their hearts bleed at this point,” said Neil Trubowiz, 75, from Tel Aviv, in Hostage Square.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who opposed the deal, said he would remain in the government but that the prime minister had promised him the war would continue.
Mor Zahiro demanded that what he called “extremist elements” in the cabinet be prevented from collapsing the deal.
“Tell them to shut up!” he said. “Let the people come back to their loved ones.”
He denounced the idea that the war could start again. “Stop the fighting. Stop the war. Stop everything. Don’t shoot another bullet, let us heal. This is really crucial, otherwise there will be hell here for the next 50 years.”
On Saturday night, Netanyahu gave protesters and hostage families further cause for anxiety, saying the ceasefire deal could not go ahead until Hamas handed over a list of hostages to be released.
He also said in a televised address that Israel “reserved the right to return to war.”
Palestinian militants took 251 people hostage during Hamas’s surprise October 7 attack, 94 of whom remain in captivity in the Gaza Strip, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
The lengthy ceasefire process, with the first 33 hostages released in small groups over 42 days, followed by a second and third phase that are still to be negotiated, leaves multiple opportunities for the process to collapse.
“We’re anticipating some good news tomorrow, but on the other hand, we’re very wary of what could happen in the meantime,” said Guy Perry, 58, also from Tel Aviv.
He described the possibility of a final end to the war and the return of all hostages as a “very, very dim light” at the end of the tunnel.
Despite their fears the deal could collapse at any moment, many couldn’t help but hope.
“I cannot wait to see my uncle, I really hope he managed to survive,” said Efrat Machikawa, whose uncle Gadi Moses turned 80 while held hostage in Gaza.
“I have to trust my hope. This has to happen, they have to come back.”
What we know about the Gaza hostage and prisoner exchange
- Israel’s Justice Ministry published their details early on Saturday, along with the ceasefire agreement, which said 30 Palestinian prisoners would be released for each female hostage on Sunday
JERUSALEM: The ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas is due to take effect from 8.30 a.m. (0630 GMT) on Sunday, following final approval of the deal by the Israeli government.
Thirty-three of the 98 remaining Israeli hostages, including women, children, men over 50 and ill and wounded captives, are to be freed over the course of the first phase of the ceasefire, due to last six weeks. Israel believes most are still alive but has received no confirmation from Hamas.
In return, Israel will release almost 2,000 Palestinians from its jails.
They include 737 male, female and teen-aged prisoners, some of whom are members of militant groups convicted of attacks that killed dozens of Israelis, as well as of 1,167 Palestinians detained in Gaza since the start of the war and held in Israel.
Israel’s Justice Ministry published their details early on Saturday, along with the ceasefire agreement, which said 30 Palestinian prisoners would be released for each female hostage on Sunday.
During the first phase of the ceasefire, the Israeli army will pull back from some of its positions in Gaza and Palestinians displaced from areas in northern Gaza will be allowed to return.
A second phase, exchanging the remaining hostages and completing the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza is expected to follow, depending on the results of negotiations, which will begin 16 days from the start of the ceasefire.
HOSTAGE AND PRISONER HANDOVER
On Sunday after 4 p.m. (1400 GMT), Israel will hand over 95 Palestinian prisoners and will receive three hostages in exchange. The prisoners to be released on the first day of the ceasefire do not include any prominent detainees, and many were recently detained and not tried or convicted.
The identity of the three hostages to be handed over is not yet known. The military says it will publish the names once they have received the hostages.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN THEY ARE HANDED OVER?
The hostages will be handed by Hamas to Red Cross officials who will take them to the Israeli military in Gaza. The military has set up three locations near the northern, central and southern edges of Gaza in Erez, Re’im and Kerem Shalom to take charge of the hostages, according to the route they take out.
The hostages will be met there by medical staff, welfare specialists and psychologists to help with the initial transition before they are reunited with their families.
They will be taken by vehicle or helicopter to specialized facilities set up to receive them and help them adjust to returning from the trauma of 15 months in captivity. They will be kept away from the press and will receive medical and psychological support.
