BEIRUT, Lebanon: In the northern Lebanon town of Chekka, Suheil Hamawi received a heartfelt welcome as he returned home Monday after languishing for 33 years in deposed Syrian president Bashar Assad’s jails.
A day earlier, as Assad fled the country, Islamist-led rebels captured the Syrian capital and released thousands of prisoners from his notorious jail system.
“Today I feel like I can breathe again. The best thing in this world is freedom,” Hamawi, 61, told AFP, visibly tearing up from joy.
Hamawi’s release gave renewed hope to hundreds of families in Lebanon who have demanded to know of the fate of thousands of prisoners believed to have disappeared at the hands of Syrian troops who entered Lebanon shortly after the outbreak of the 1975-1990 civil war.
Hamawi said he was moved from one prison to another, even spending time in the notorious Saydnaya facility where he wrote poetry, before ending up in a jail in the coastal Latakia region.
His love for his wife Josephine Homsi and for his son fueled him during his time in prison.
“I was far away but she was my source of strength, the other was my son,” he said.
Homsi was overjoyed to be reunited with her husband.
“Thirty-three years ago, they came to this house, knocked on our door one evening and told my husband: we need to talk to you. Then he disappeared for 11 years,” Homsi said.
After she managed to track him down, she spent more than a decade visiting him in Syrian prisons, she said, hoping they would one day be reunited.
Rights groups say thousands of men, women and children disappeared at the hands of Hafez Assad, Bashar’s late father, during Lebanon’s civil war.
Hamawi’s twin Nicolas told AFP seeing his long lost brother had given him a new sense of purpose.
“Today, we’ve been reborn,” he said, adding the pair now felt “truly like twins” again.
“My brother is more than a hero. He endured life in prison, and today he has returned to live in freedom like he has been longing to for 33 years,” he said.
For three decades, Syria was a dominant military and political force in Lebanon, before withdrawing its troops in 2005 under international pressure after the assassination of Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafic Hariri.
“I waited a lot, I suffered a lot, but I achieved freedom,” Hamawi said.
Lebanese released from Assad jail after 33 years given hero’s welcome
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Lebanese released from Assad jail after 33 years given hero’s welcome
- Hamawi’s release gave renewed hope to hundreds of families in Lebanon
Gaza ceasefire enters phase two despite unresolved issues
- Under the second phase, Gaza is to be administered by a 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee operating under the supervision of a so-called “Board of Peace,” to be chaired by Trump
JERUSALEM: A US-backed plan to end the war in Gaza has entered its second phase despite unresolved disputes between Israel and Hamas over alleged ceasefire violations and issues unaddressed in the first stage.
The most contentious questions remain Hamas’s refusal to publicly commit to full disarmament, a non-negotiable demand from Israel, and Israel’s lack of clarity over whether it will fully withdraw its forces from Gaza.
The creation of a Palestinian technocratic committee, announced on Wednesday, is intended to manage day-to-day governance in post-war Gaza, but it leaves unresolved broader political and security questions.
Below is a breakdown of developments from phase one to the newly launched second stage.
Gains and gaps in phase one
The first phase of the plan, part of a 20-point proposal unveiled by US President Donald Trump, began on October 10 and aimed primarily to stop the fighting in the Gaza Strip, allow in aid and secure the return of all remaining living and deceased hostages held by Hamas and allied Palestinian militant groups.
All hostages have since been returned, except for the remains of one Israeli, Ran Gvili.
Israel has accused Hamas of delaying the handover of Gvili’s body, while Hamas has said widespread destruction in Gaza made locating the remains difficult.
Gvili’s family had urged mediators to delay the transition to phase two.
“Moving on breaks my heart. Have we given up? Ran did not give up on anyone,” his sister, Shira Gvili, said after mediators announced the move.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said efforts to recover Gvili’s remains would continue but has not publicly commented on the launch of phase two.
Hamas has accused Israel of repeated ceasefire violations, including air strikes, firing on civilians and advancing the so-called “Yellow Line,” an informal boundary separating areas under Israeli military control from those under Hamas authority.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Israeli forces had killed 451 people since the ceasefire took effect.
Israel’s military said it had targeted suspected militants who crossed into restricted zones near the Yellow Line, adding that three Israeli soldiers were also killed by militants during the same period.
Aid agencies say Israel has not allowed the volume of humanitarian assistance envisaged under phase one, a claim Israel rejects.
Gaza, whose borders and access points remain under Israeli control, continues to face severe shortages of food, clean water, medicine and fuel.
Israel and the United Nations have repeatedly disputed figures on the number of aid trucks permitted to enter the Palestinian territory.
Disarmament, governance in phase two
Under the second phase, Gaza is to be administered by a 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee operating under the supervision of a so-called “Board of Peace,” to be chaired by Trump.
“The ball is now in the court of the mediators, the American guarantor and the international community to empower the committee,” Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas leader, said in a statement on Thursday.
Trump on Thursday announced the board of peace had been formed and its members would be announced “shortly.”
Mediators Egypt, Turkiye and Qatar said Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister in the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, had been appointed to lead the committee.
Later on Thursday, Egyptian state television reported that all members of the committee had “arrived in Egypt and begun their meetings in preparation for entering the territory.”
Al-Qahera News, which is close to Egypt’s state intelligence services, said the members’ arrival followed US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s announcement on Wednesday “of the start of the second phase and what was agreed upon at the meeting of Palestinian factions in Cairo yesterday.”
Shaath, in a recent interview, said the committee would rely on “brains rather than weapons” and would not coordinate with armed groups.
On Wednesday, Witkoff said phase two aims for the “full demilitarization and reconstruction of Gaza,” including the disarmament of all unauthorized armed factions.
Witkoff said Washington expected Hamas to fulfil its remaining obligations, including the return of Gvili’s body, warning that failure to do so would bring “serious consequences.”
The plan also calls for the deployment of an International Stabilization Force to help secure Gaza and train vetted Palestinian police units.
For Palestinians, the central issue remains Israel’s full military withdrawal from Gaza — a step included in the framework but for which no detailed timetable has been announced.
With fundamental disagreements persisting over disarmament, withdrawal and governance, diplomats say the success of phase two will depend on sustained pressure from mediators and whether both sides are willing — or able — to move beyond long-standing red lines.
