Syria's 'Wanted List' Includes 1.5 Million People

A civil-defense member reacts after what activists say were three consecutive air strikes by the Russian air force in Idlib province, Syria, on January 12, 2016. (Reuters / Khalil Ashawi)
A civil-defense member reacts after what activists say were three consecutive air strikes by the Russian air force in Idlib province, Syria, on January 12, 2016. (Reuters / Khalil Ashawi)
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Syria's 'Wanted List' Includes 1.5 Million People

A civil-defense member reacts after what activists say were three consecutive air strikes by the Russian air force in Idlib province, Syria, on January 12, 2016. (Reuters / Khalil Ashawi)
A civil-defense member reacts after what activists say were three consecutive air strikes by the Russian air force in Idlib province, Syria, on January 12, 2016. (Reuters / Khalil Ashawi)

Desperate to find out if they can ever return home, Syrians exiled by their country's uprising-turned-war are scouring a leaked database of people reportedly wanted by the intelligence services, Agence France Presse reported.

Typing in first, last and father's names into the online list, Syrians abroad hold their breath to learn if a long-awaited visit to Damascus would land them in regime prison or potentially far worse.

Hundreds of thousands have been arrested by Syria's feared security apparatus since the conflict erupted in 2011, many for opposing the regime.

Others have fled the country, fearing detention, torture, or worse.

Last month, the pro-opposition Zaman Al-Wasl news website released a searchable database of 1.5 million reportedly wanted people, including which security branch seeks their arrest, questioning or travel ban.

"Wanted By: General Intelligence Directorate. Action: Arrest," reads the result for Amr al-Azm, history professor at Shawnee State University in the United States.

"I would not have assumed otherwise," sighed Azm, 54, who last visited his native Syria a year before protests against Bashar al-Assad began.

Since then, Azm has spoken out actively against Assad, so was unfazed to see his name on the list.

"On the one hand, you feel proud you've done enough to attract the attention of the authorities," he said.

"But at the same time, it makes me very sad -- because if it's true, it means I'll never see Syria again."

Zaman al-Wasl says the list was part of a trove of 1.7 million regime documents leaked by Damascus-based sources in 2015.

It says the database has been searched more than 10 million times. Their site also shows frustrated reactions from people who learned they were wanted. 

When a first installment of 500,000 names was released in early March, exiled Syrian opposition figures began sending each other the link.

Many already knew they were persona non grata in their homeland, but wanted details: which of Syria's feared security branches held outstanding warrants for them? Would they face a simple interrogation or full-blown arrest?

"It's like a terminal disease. You know you have it, but the lab tests come through and you get the confirmation," Azm said.

The list does not include the specific crime in question, and doubts remain about whether it is comprehensive or up-to-date. 

Still, when Zeina learned of the database, her heart began racing. 

She left Syria in 2012 after two stints in regime jails for demonstrating, and wondered if she'd face a third arrest.

"I never considered not searching, because I'd rather know," said Zeina, using a pseudonym.

As each third of the database was released, she punched in her real name, but it generated no criminal record.

"I want it to be true for selfish reasons, because I'm not on it and I want to go back," Zeina said.

She aches for personal letters, books and ancestors' belongings she would inherit, still thousands of kilometers away.

To double-check, Zeina asked contacts in Damascus to run her name against their lists, which could be more recent and detailed. Still, nothing. 

"I don't have an answer, and that's why I haven't taken action yet," she said.

"Is it worse to go back and risk being taken? Or never go, and then it ends up that they never wanted me in the first place?"

Even people living outside regime control in Syria have used Zaman al-Wasl's database. 

Dilbrin Mohammad, 37, lives in Kurdish-held Qamishli and fears arrest by the regime for protesting in 2011.

He has searched lists like Zaman al-Wasl's and paid bribes to regime officials to search their records, which can cost as much as $200. To be safe, he avoids regime checkpoints.

"You feel like the regime-controlled parts are a different country that you need a visa for," said the computer technician. 

"It's like they're North Korea and we're the South."

It's been more than two years since Mohammad Kheder resettled in Germany with his wife and three children, but he insists it's a temporary stay.

"I don't want to get acclimatized, because we're going back to Syria," said Kheder, 32, who hails from Albu Kamal in the east.

He'll never forget the euphoria of his hometown's first anti-Assad protests nor would he regret participating, even if it landed him on the regime's wanted list. 

"I didn't open the Zaman al-Wasl database because I already knew, but all my friends sent me screenshots of my name," Kheder said.

It prompted him to search the names of his brothers, friends, and nostalgically, activists he knew were killed in the seven-year war.

"Seeing my name was a badge of honor. It only made me more determined to go back, but not while Assad is in power," he said.

"I'm wanted by Assad? Well, he's wanted by me."



As Israel Advances in Gaza, Many Exhausted Families Flee Again 

Displaced Palestinians arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP)
Displaced Palestinians arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP)
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As Israel Advances in Gaza, Many Exhausted Families Flee Again 

Displaced Palestinians arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP)
Displaced Palestinians arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP)

As Israel orders wide new evacuations across the Gaza Strip, Palestinians say they are crushed by exhaustion and hopelessness at the prospect of fleeing once again. Many are packing a few belongings and trudging off in search of new shelters. Some say they just can’t bear to move.

When ordered out of Jabaliya in northern Gaza, Ihab Suliman and his family could only grab some food and blankets before making their way south March 19. It was their eighth time fleeing over the past 18 months of war.

"There is no longer any taste to life," said Suliman, a former university professor. "Life and death have become one and the same for us."

Suliman is among the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have fled temporary shelters since Israel shattered a 2-month-old ceasefire on March 18 with renewed bombardment and ground assaults.

Daunted by the notion of starting over, some Palestinians are ignoring the latest evacuation orders — even if it means risking their lives.

"After one year and a half of war that has exhausted everyone, children and their parents, too, are just worn out physically and mentally," said Rosalia Bollen, UNICEF’s communication specialist.

For the past month, Israel has blocked all food, fuel and supplies from entering Gaza, and aid groups say there are no more tents or other shelter supplies to help the newly displaced. On Tuesday, the World Food Program shut down all its bakeries in Gaza, on which hundreds of thousands rely for bread, because it had run out of flour.

Many are fleeing with almost no belongings

Israel’s evacuation orders now cover large swaths of the Gaza Strip, including many areas of Gaza City and towns in the north, parts of the southern city of Khan Younis, and almost the entire southern city of Rafah and its surroundings.

As of March 23, more than 140,000 people had been displaced again since the end of the ceasefire, according to the latest UN estimate — and tens of thousands more are estimated to have fled under evacuation orders over the past week.

Every time families have moved during the war, they have had to leave behind belongings and start nearly from scratch, finding food, water and shelter. Now, with no fuel entering, transportation is even more difficult, so many are fleeing with almost nothing.

"With each displacement, we’re tortured a thousand times," Suliman said. He and his family found an apartment to rent in the central town of Deir al-Balah. He said they’re struggling, with no electricity and little aid. They must walk long distances to find water.

Fleeing from Rafah on Monday, Hanadi Dahoud said she is struggling to find essentials.

"Where do we go?" she said. "We just want to live. We are tired. There are long queues waiting for bread and charity kitchens."

During the two-month ceasefire that began in mid-January, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flowed back to their neighborhoods. Even if their homes were destroyed, they wanted to be near them — sometimes setting up tents on or next to the rubble.

They had hoped it would be the end of their displacement in a war that has driven nearly the entire population of some 2.3 million from their homes.

The war in Gaza began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. Since then, Israel's retaliatory offensive has left hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in squalid, crowded tent camps or schools-turned-shelters. Most have had to move multiple times to escape fighting and bombardment.

Shelter is limited

Some shelters are so crowded they have had to turn families away, said Shaina Low, communications adviser at the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Many families are streaming back to Muwasi, a barren coastal stretch of southern Gaza where, before the ceasefire, hundreds of thousands had been packed into tent cities. During the ceasefire, the camps thinned out as people returned to their neighborhoods. Those returning are finding that tents are scarce; aid groups say they have none to give out because of Israel’s blockade.

More than a million people urgently need tents, while thousands of others require plastic sheets and ropes to strengthen fragile makeshift shelters, Gavin Kelleher, NRC’s humanitarian access manager in Gaza, said at a recent media briefing.

For now, people are cramming into tents or moving into destroyed buildings that are in danger of collapse — trying "to put absolutely anything between themselves and the sky at night," Kelleher said.

Relocating and reinstalling health and nutrition facilities amid declining aid supplies has been "absolutely draining" for families and humanitarian workers, UNICEF's Bollen said.

"Our job would be much easier if we had access to our supplies and if we didn’t have to fear for our own lives at every moment," she said.

Khaled Abu Tair led a donkey cart with some bread and blankets as he and his family fled Khan Younis. He said they were heading "God knows where," and would have to set up on the street a makeshift shelter out of sheets.

"We do not have a place, there are no tents, no places to live or shelter, or anything," he said.

Some can’t bear to move

When orders came to evacuate Gaza City’s Tel Hawa district, Sara Hegy and her mother decided to stay. Their original home in the nearby district of Zaytoun is too destroyed to be livable, and Hegy said she was in despair at the thought of starting over again.

"I had a breakdown the day the war resumed. I didn’t leave the house," said Hegy, who had started an online tutoring job a few days before Israel relaunched its assault.

Others dread the evacuation orders that might come.

Noor Abu Mariam said she and her brother and parents have already been displaced 11 times over the course of the war, moving through tent camps and houses around the south, each time starting over in the search for shelter, food and supplies.

Now back in Gaza City, she can’t do it again, she said.

"I refuse to leave the house no matter the circumstances because I am not psychologically prepared to relive those difficult days I lived in the south," she said.