Ahmed Yahia Dabas fled to Lebanon more than a decade ago to escape relentless shelling and frequent airstrikes carried out by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime and its Russian allies in northwestern Syria.
Dabas, 37, moved to Beirut's southern suburbs, where he found work as a doorman and began rebuilding a new life away from the war-torn country. He and his wife had four children, two boys and two girls, now ages 4 to 9.
As Israel began retaliatory bombing of parts of southern Beirut at the end of September, the family, whose home was destroyed, decided to return to Syria.
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As the war between Israel and Hezbollah continues, fire and smoke erupt from a building shortly after an Israeli airstrike in the Siya area of southern Beirut on November 22, 2024. (AFP via Getty Images)
Speaking to FOX News Digital by phone from northwestern Syria in an interview translated by the Syria Emergency Task Force (SETF), a nonprofit and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., Dabas told FOX News Digital by phone from northwestern Syria that his family was traveling from Lebanon to an area. He talked about his 5-day trip. They were freed from Assad's rule and the challenges they had faced as refugees.
“We went to Lebanon to escape the shelling, but then the war ensued,” he said. “For the same reason, we had to leave everything in search of safety, and we had to flee from Lebanon back to Syria.”
When the family arrived at the Syria-Lebanon border, they encountered numerous checkpoints manned by various Assad regime security forces. Dabas said many of the people manning the checkpoints demanded money to get through and ended up paying bribes to continue moving.
Ahmed Yahia Dabas and his four children traveling from Lebanon to northwest Syria. (Ahmed Yahia Dabas | FOX News Digital)
The family passed through one checkpoint after another before finally arriving in the city of Aleppo. By the time they arrived, it was already late, so they spent the night heading to a crossing point into non-regime-controlled areas of Aleppo province.
They then spent three nights in a kind of “no man's land” between regime and rebel-held areas of Aleppo. Like others fleeing Lebanon and attempting to leave regime-controlled areas, Dabas said they were spat at, beaten and not allowed to eat or drink while they waited.
He added that two days passed before they were given food. They eventually made it to the rebel side of the border and spent a day at a Free Syrian Army checkpoint before finally registering with authorities in the rebel area and settling in the northern countryside of Idlib on October 4. .
The Dabas family spent three nights in a kind of “no-man's land” between regime-held and rebel-held areas of Aleppo. (Ahmed Yahia Dabas I Fox News Digital)
The Dabas family is one of many families who have chosen to flee to non-regime-controlled areas of Syria, under threat of arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearance and even death by the Syrian government.
SETF Executive Director Mouaz Mustafa told FOX News Digital that some Gulf Arab states are normalizing relations with Assad and some European countries are considering deporting refugees to Syria. He said what he was doing was “horrifying” and “disturbing.”
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“Syria is not safe,” Mustafa said. “Wherever the regime rules, it's a place where people would rather keep walking after walking for a long time.”
Syrian Red Crescent rescue workers respond to refugees arriving from Lebanon at the Judeidat Yabous border crossing in southwestern Syria on October 7, 2024. (Louis Beshara/AFP via Getty Images)
United Nations Refugee Agency said in early November More than 470,000 people – about 30% Lebanese and 70% Syrian – entered Syria from Lebanon to escape Israeli shelling.
Israel stepped up its bombing campaign against the terrorist organization Hezbollah in September, following more than a year of cross-border exchanges that began the day after the Hamas terrorist attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. The Jewish state has killed several prominent leaders of the terrorist organization, including longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and senior commander Ibraham Akil. $7 million reward to his head from the U.S. State Department.
Although Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire in late November, Dabas said he would not return to Beirut with his family. The father of four said his brother, who is also a refugee in northwestern Syria, helped them, but the food they received had run out when they arrived and he was struggling to find work. He said he was there.
On October 9, 2024, Syrian refugees in Lebanon return home after traveling to the rebel-held northern province of Idlib through the Aoun al-Dadat crossing north of Manbij. (Bilal Alhamoud/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
They live in crowded houses with other relatives who were unable to flee Syria in 2014 and are under “daily” shelling from Assad's regime, Russia and Iranian-backed forces.
“There is no safety or security,” Dabas said. He told Fox News Digital that he feels indescribable joy to be back in his home country and reunite with his family, but he wants peace and an end to the bombing.
Drone attack in northwest Syria
The humanitarian crisis in northwestern Syria has worsened in recent months, with an increase in the number of displaced people and a spike in drone attacks against civilians in residential areas.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates 3.5 million people. people are internally displaced Two million people live in camps in northwest Syria.
Ismail Arabdollah, a volunteer with the Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, a relief organization founded in 2013 after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, told Fox News Digital that the Assad regime and its allies are attacking residential areas. He said that he has launched a new strategy to With a suicide drone.
The White Helmets team captured drone footage. Suicide drone attacks will increase in northwestern Syria in 2024. (white helmet)
Since November 10, White Helmets teams have responded to 876 attacks, Arabudullah said. Targets are often civilian areas such as farms, towns, agricultural areas, and civilian infrastructure.
“To be honest, this type of weapon, a suicide drone, is extremely dangerous,” he said. “It's cheap, it can fly anywhere, and it can attack anywhere.”
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“Families are afraid to send their children to school,” Abdullah added.
“Perhaps the world still doesn't want to hear about this. They want to hear that the bombing has stopped, that nothing is happening in Syria, that northwest Syria is safe. It's not safe. No, especially in Idlib.”
The Syrian Civil Defense Forces, commonly known as the White Helmets, are responding to attacks against civilians in northwest Syria. (white helmet)
Syrian government forces and their allies Intensification of attacks against civilians Hundreds of families have been forced to flee in western Aleppo and eastern Idlib in recent months.
In a surprising development, Syrian rebels entered Aleppo, the country's second city, on Friday for the first time since 2016, after launching an offensive against regime forces earlier this week.
Reuters noted that the shocking attack was the first territorial advance since 2020 after a ceasefire agreement between Turkey and Russia halted fighting in Idlib.
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On November 27, 2024, rebels take control of several villages in the western countryside as clashes between the Bashar al-Assad regime and the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham continue in Aleppo, Syria. . (Kasim Ranma/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Arabudullah told Fox News Digital that the White Helmets still need support from the international community, and that their needs exceed their capacity, especially as winter approaches and they are dealing with a growing number of displaced people. .
“We need everyone to help us stop the brutality and stop the murders,” he said. “Imagine children at camp. They don't know what a lock means. They've never seen a door with a lock before, and they don't know that this is the door to their house. yeah.
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“Everything needs to stop. People need to go back to their homes to end the suffering and get their lives back.”
