Austin Tice's Mother in Damascus, Hopes to Find Son

Debra Tice, mother of journalist Austin Tice who disappeared while reporting in Syria in 2012, speaks after an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar 
Debra Tice, mother of journalist Austin Tice who disappeared while reporting in Syria in 2012, speaks after an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar 
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Austin Tice's Mother in Damascus, Hopes to Find Son

Debra Tice, mother of journalist Austin Tice who disappeared while reporting in Syria in 2012, speaks after an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar 
Debra Tice, mother of journalist Austin Tice who disappeared while reporting in Syria in 2012, speaks after an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar 

The mother of American journalist Austin Tice, who was taken captive during a reporting trip to Syria in August 2012, arrived in Damascus on Saturday to step up the search for her son and said she hopes she can take him home with her, according to Reuters.

Tice, who worked as a freelance reporter for the Washington Post and McClatchy, was one of the first US journalists to make it into Syria after the outbreak of the civil war.

His mother, Debra Tice, drove into the Syrian capital from Lebanon with Nizar Zakka, the head of Hostage Aid Worldwide, an organization which is searching for Austin and believes he is still in Syria.

“It'd be lovely to put my arms around Austin while I'm here. It'd be the best,” Debra Tice told Reuters in the Syrian capital, which she last visited in 2015 to meet with Syrian authorities about her son, before they stopped granting her visas.

The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December by the Syrian opposition has allowed her to visit again from her home in Texas.

“I feel very strongly that Austin's here, and I think he knows I'm here... I'm here,” she said.

Debra Tice and Zakka are hoping to meet with Syria's new authorities, including the head of its new administration Ahmed al-Sharaa, to push for information about Austin.

They are also optimistic that US President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on Monday, will take up the cause.

Her son, now 43, was taken captive in August 2012, while travelling through the Damascus suburb of Daraya.

Reuters was first to report in December that in 2013 Tice, a former US Marine, managed to slip out of his cell and was seen moving between houses in the streets of Damascus' upscale Mazzeh neighborhood.

He was recaptured soon after his escape, likely by forces who answered directly to Assad, current and former US officials said.

Debra Tice came to Syria in 2012 and 2015 to meet with Syrian authorities, who never confirmed that Tice was in their custody, both she and Zakka said.

She criticized outgoing US President Joe Biden's administration, saying they did not negotiate hard enough for her son's release, even in recent months.

“We certainly felt like President Biden was very well positioned to do everything possible to bring Austin home, right? I mean, this was the end of his career,” she said. “This would be a wonderful thing for him to do. So we had an expectation. He pardoned his own son, right? So, where's my son?”

Debra Tice said her “mind was just spinning” as she drove across the Lebanese border into Syria and teared up as she spoke about the tens of thousands whose loved ones were held in Assad's notorious prison system and whose fate remains unknown.

“I have a lot in common with a lot of Syrian mothers and families, and just thinking about how this is affecting them - do they have the same hope that I do, that they're going to open a door, that they're going to see their loved one?”

 

 



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”