Hamas Appointing Municipal Administrations in Gaza Sparks Controversyhttps://english.aawsat.com/home/article/1836121/hamas-appointing-municipal-administrations-gaza-sparks-controversy
Hamas Appointing Municipal Administrations in Gaza Sparks Controversy
A Palestinian woman reads a local newspaper
Hamas appointing new administrations for the municipalities councils in Gaza has raised a Palestinian debate amid concerns of widening the internal division that has been ongoing for 12 years.
Gaza municipality announced two days ago appointing Yahya Sarraj as a new president – the municipality said that the new president would hold consultations with the competent committees and the city dignitaries and those concerned with naming the members of the municipal council.
Undersecretary of the Ministry of Local Government Ibrahim Radwan said that adopting this way in electing a new president came amid continuous disruption of holding local elections.
The election process witnessed the participation of elites from the community in addition to representatives from institutions, local authorities, syndicates, and universities, Radwan added.
Gaza municipality is the second biggest councils on the Palestinian territories in regards to the population, with around 1,800 employees and the highest revenues on the level of the Strip.
The German news agency (dpa) reported that Hamas authorities appointed a new president for Fatah municipality, in the far south of Gaza Strip. At the beginning of 2018, they appointed a president for Khan Yunis.
Gaza Strip didn’t witness elections for the municipal council since 2005, while the West Bank held municipal elections between 2011-2017 without the Strip due to internal disputes.
The appointment of municipal administrations in Gaza Strip - without elections- was met with criticism by Palestinian factions especially Fatah – led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Fatah Revolutionary Council Member Mohammad al-Lahham stated that Hamas imposes its leaders on Gaza Strip municipalities away from any form of democracy or accord with the organizations and the civil community.
Iyad Awadallah, an official from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said that this way of choosing president for Gaza municipality strikes the essence of the democratic process.
Syria’s Sharaa Calls for United Efforts to Rebuild a Year After Assad’s Ouster https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5217077-syria%E2%80%99s-sharaa-calls-united-efforts-rebuild-year-after-assad%E2%80%99s-ouster%C2%A0
People celebrate and wave Syrian flags as they wait for a parade by the new Syrian army marking the first anniversary of the ousting of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP)
TT
TT
Syria’s Sharaa Calls for United Efforts to Rebuild a Year After Assad’s Ouster
People celebrate and wave Syrian flags as they wait for a parade by the new Syrian army marking the first anniversary of the ousting of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP)
President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Monday urged Syrians to work together to rebuild their country, still marred by insecurity and divisions, as they marked a year since the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.
The atmosphere in Damascus was jubilant as thousands of people took to the streets of the capital, AFP correspondents said, after mosques in the Old City began the day broadcasting celebratory prayers at dawn.
"What happened over the past year seems like a miracle," said Iyad Burghol, 44, a doctor, citing developments including a warm welcome in Washington by President Donald Trump for Sharaa.
"People are demanding electricity, lower prices and higher salaries" after years of war and economic crisis, Burghol said.
"But the most important thing to me is civil peace, security and safety," he added, taking a photo of people carrying a huge Syrian flag and sending it to his friends abroad.
Sharaa's opposition alliance launched a lightning offensive in late November last year, taking the capital Damascus on December 8 after nearly 14 years of war and putting an end to more than five decades of the Assad family's iron-fisted rule.
Since then, Sharaa has managed to restore Syria's international standing and has won sanctions relief, but he faces major challenges in guaranteeing security, rebuilding crumbling institutions, regaining Syrians' trust and keeping his fractured country united.
"The current phase requires the unification of efforts by all citizens to build a strong Syria, consolidate its stability, safeguard its sovereignty, and achieve a future befitting the sacrifices of its people," Sharaa said following dawn prayers at Damascus's famous Umayyad Mosque.
He was wearing military garb as he did when he entered the capital a year ago.
- 'Heal deep divisions' -
As part of the celebrations in Damascus, hundreds of military personnel marched down a major thoroughfare as helicopters flew overhead and people lined the streets to watch.
Sharaa and several ministers were in attendance, state media reported.
Monday's events, including an expected speech by Sharaa, are the culmination of celebrations that began last month as Syrians began marking the start of last year's lightning offensive.
Multi-confessional Syria's fragile transition has been shaken this year by sectarian bloodshed in the country's Alawite and Druze minority heartlands, alongside ongoing Israeli military operations.
In a statement, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that "what lies ahead is far more than a political transition; it is the chance to rebuild shattered communities and heal deep divisions".
"It is an opportunity to forge a nation where every Syrian -- regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender or political affiliation -- can live securely, equally, and with dignity," he said in the statement, urging international support.
On Sunday, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which investigates international human rights law violations since the start of the war, warned the country's transition was fragile and said that "cycles of vengeance and reprisal must be brought to an end".
The US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that control swathes of northeast Syria said Monday that "the next phase requires launching a real, inclusive dialogue... and establishing a new social contract that guarantees rights, freedoms and equality".
The Kurdish administration in the northeast has announced a ban on public gatherings on Monday, citing security concerns, while also banning gunfire and fireworks.
Under a March deal, the Kurdish administration was to integrate its institutions into the central government by year-end, but progress has stalled.
On Saturday, a prominent Alawite spiritual leader in Syria urged members of his religious minority, to which the Assad family also belongs, to boycott the celebrations, in protest against the new authorities.
Syrian Refugee Returns Set to Slow as Donor Support Fadeshttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5217059-syrian-refugee-returns-set-slow-donor-support-fades
People sit after receiving bread from Ecir Kapici, Turkish humanitarian NGO at Al-Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, after Syria's Bashar Al-Assad was ousted, in Damascus, Syria, December 20 , 2024. (Reuters)
Syrian Refugee Returns Set to Slow as Donor Support Fades
People sit after receiving bread from Ecir Kapici, Turkish humanitarian NGO at Al-Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, after Syria's Bashar Al-Assad was ousted, in Damascus, Syria, December 20 , 2024. (Reuters)
More than 3 million Syrians have returned home since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's rule a year ago but a decline in global funding could deter others, the UN refugee agency said on Monday.
Some 1.2 million refugees in addition to 1.9 million internally displaced people have gone back home following the civil war that ended with Assad's overthrow, but millions more are yet to return, according to UNHCR.
The agency said much more support was needed to ensure the trend continues.
"Syrians are ready to rebuild – the question is whether the world is ready to help them do it," said UNHCR head Filippo Grandi. Over 5 million refugees remain outside Syria's borders, mostly in neighboring countries like Jordan and Lebanon.
RISK OF REVERSALS
Grandi told donors in Geneva last week that there was a risk that those Syrians who are returning might even reverse their course and come back to host states.
"Returns continue in fairly large numbers but unless we step up broader efforts, the risk of (reversals) is very real," he said.
Overall, Syria's $3.19 billion humanitarian response is 29% funded this year, according to UN data, at a time when donors like the United States and others are making major cuts to foreign aid across the board.
The World Health Organization sees a gap emerging as aid money drops off before national systems can take over.
As of last month, only 58% of hospitals were fully functional and some are suffering power outages, affecting cold-chain storage for vaccines.
"Returnees are coming back to areas where medicines, staff and infrastructure are limited – adding pressure to already thin services," Christina Bethke, Acting WHO Representative in Syria, told reporters.
The slow pace of removing unexploded ordnance is also a major obstacle to recovery, said the aid group Humanity & Inclusion, which reported over 1,500 deaths and injuries in the last year. Such efforts are just 13% funded, it said.
Some aid officials say Syria is one of the first crises to be hit by aid funding cuts because the end of the war means it no longer counts as an emergency, eligible for priority funding.
Others may have held back as they wait to see if authorities under President Ahmed al-Sharaa make good on promises of reform and accountability.
On Anniversary of the Fall of Bashar Assad, Syrians and Their Country Struggle to Heal https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5217056-anniversary-fall-bashar-assad%C2%A0syrians%C2%A0and-their-country-struggle%C2%A0%C2%A0heal%C2%A0
Syrians shout slogans and wave flags outside the Umayyad Mosque before a prayer held ahead of celebrations marking the first anniversary of the ousting of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP)
TT
TT
On Anniversary of the Fall of Bashar Assad, Syrians and Their Country Struggle to Heal
Syrians shout slogans and wave flags outside the Umayyad Mosque before a prayer held ahead of celebrations marking the first anniversary of the ousting of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP)
A year ago, Mohammad Marwan found himself stumbling, barefoot and dazed, out of Syria’s notorious Saydnaya prison on the outskirts of Damascus as opposition forces pushing toward the capital threw open its doors to release the prisoners.
Arrested in 2018 for fleeing compulsory military service, the father of three had cycled through four other lockups before landing in Saydnaya, a sprawling complex just north of Damascus that became synonymous with some of the worst atrocities committed under the rule of now ousted President Bashar al-Assad.
He recalled guards waiting to welcome new prisoners with a gauntlet of beatings and electric shocks. “They said, ‘You have no rights here, and we’re not calling an ambulance unless we have a dead body,’” Marwan said.
His Dec. 8, 2024 homecoming to a house full of relatives and friends in his village in Homs province was joyful.
But in the year since then, he has struggled to overcome the physical and psychological effects of his six-year imprisonment. He suffered from chest pain and difficulty breathing that turned out to be the result of tuberculosis. He was beset by crippling anxiety and difficulty sleeping.
He’s now undergoing treatment for tuberculosis and attending therapy sessions at a center in Homs focused on rehabilitating former prisoners, and Marwan said his physical and mental situations have gradually improved.
“We were in something like a state of death” in Saydnaya, he said. “Now we’ve come back to life.”
A country struggling to heal
Marwan's country is also struggling to heal a year after the Assad dynasty’s repressive 50-year reign came to an end following 14 years of civil war that left an estimated half a million people dead, millions more displaced, and the country battered and divided.
Assad's downfall came as a shock, even to the opposition factions who unseated him. In late November 2024, groups in the country’s northwest — led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an opposition group whose then-leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is now the country’s interim president — launched an offensive on the city of Aleppo, aiming to take it back from Assad’s forces.
They were startled when the Syrian army collapsed with little resistance, first in Aleppo, then the key cities of Hama and Homs, leaving the road to Damascus open. Meanwhile, opposition groups in the country’s south mobilized to make their own push toward the capital.
06 December 2025, Syria, Damascus: People walk through al-Hamedya market in Damascus, which is decorated by flags marking the first anniversary of the fall of Assad. (dpa)
The opposition took Damascus on Dec. 8 while Assad was whisked away by Russian forces and remains in exile in Moscow. But Russia, a longtime Assad ally, did not intervene militarily to defend him and has since established ties with the country's new rulers and maintained its bases on the Syrian coast.
Hassan Abdul Ghani, spokesperson for Syrian Ministry of Defense, said HTS and its allies had launched a major organizational overhaul after suffering heavy losses in 2019 and 2020, when Assad’s forces regained control of a number of formerly opposition-controlled areas.
The opposition offensive in November 2024 was not initially aimed at seizing Damascus but was meant to preempt an expected offensive by Assad’s forces in opposition-held Idlib, Abdul Ghani said.
“The defunct regime was preparing a very large campaign against the liberated areas, and it wanted to finish the Idlib file,” he said. Launching an attack on Aleppo “was a military solution to expand the radius of the battle and thus safeguard the liberated interior areas.”
In timing the attack, the opposition fighters also aimed to take advantage of the fact that Russia was distracted by its war in Ukraine and that the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, another Assad ally, was licking its wounds after a damaging war with Israel.
When the Syrian army’s defenses collapsed, the opposition pressed on, “taking advantage of every golden opportunity,” Abdul Ghani said.
Successes abroad, challenges at home
Since his sudden ascent to power, Sharaa has launched a diplomatic charm offensive, building ties with Western and Arab countries that shunned Assad and Sharaa.
A crowning moment of his success in the international arena: in November, he became the first Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946 to visit Washington.
But the diplomatic successes have been offset by outbreaks of sectarian violence in which hundreds of civilians from the Alawite and Druze minorities were killed. Local Druze groups have now set up their own de facto government and military in the southern Sweida province.
There are ongoing tensions between the new government in Damascus and Kurdish-led forces controlling the country’s northeast, despite an agreement inked in March that was supposed to lead to a merger of their forces.
Israel is wary of Syria's new government even though Sharaa has said he wants no conflict with the country. Israel has seized a formerly UN-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria and launched regular airstrikes and incursions since Assad’s fall. Negotiations for a security agreement have stalled.
Meanwhile, the country’s economy has remained sluggish, despite the lifting of most Western sanctions. The World Bank estimates that rebuilding the country’s war-damaged areas will cost $216 billion.
A Boy Scout band parades down a street during celebrations marking the first anniversary of the ousting of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus, Syria, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP)
Rebuilding largely an individual effort
The rebuilding that has taken place so far has largely been on a small scale, with individual owners paying to fix their own damaged houses and businesses.
On the outskirts of Damascus, the once-vibrant Yarmouk Palestinian camp today largely resembles a moonscape. Taken over by a series of militant groups then bombarded by government planes, the camp was all but abandoned after 2018.
Since Assad’s fall, a steady stream of former residents have been coming back.
The most heavily damaged areas remain largely deserted but on the main street leading into the camp, bit by bit, blasted-out walls have been replaced in the buildings that remain structurally sound. Shops have reopened and families have come back to their apartments. But any sort of larger reconstruction initiative appears to still be far off.
“It’s been a year since the regime fell. I would hope they could remove the old destroyed houses and build towers,” said Maher al-Homsi, who is fixing his damaged home to move back to it even though the area doesn't even have a water connection.
His neighbor, Etab al-Hawari, was willing to cut the new authorities some slack.
“They inherited an empty country — the banks are empty, the infrastructure was robbed, the homes were robbed," she said.
Bassam Dimashqi, a dentist from Damascus, said of the country after Assad’s fall, “Of course it’s better, there’s freedom of some sort.”
But he remains anxious about the still-precarious security situation and its impact on the still-flagging economy.
“The job of the state is to impose security, and once you impose security, everything else will come,” he said. “The security situation is what encourages investors to come and do projects.”
Marwan, the former prisoner, says the post-Assad situation in Syria is “far better” than before. But he has also been struggling economically.
From time to time, he picks up labor that pays only 50,000 or 60,000 Syrian pounds daily, the equivalent of about $5.
Once he finishes his tuberculosis treatment, he said, he plans to leave to Lebanon in search of better-paid work.
لم تشترك بعد
انشئ حساباً خاصاً بك لتحصل على أخبار مخصصة لك ولتتمتع بخاصية حفظ المقالات وتتلقى نشراتنا البريدية المتنوعة
