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IDPs Return to Recaptured Maarat Al-Numan in Idlib, Find Widespread Destruction

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Immediately after opposition factions seized control of Maarat Al-Numan in Idlib’s countryside on December 1, hundreds of forcibly displaced residents rushed back to inspect their homes, lands, and properties only to find the extent of destruction and vandalism that had afflicted their belongings by regime forces.

The armed opposition forces, operating under the “Deterrence of Aggression” operations room led by hardline Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) toppled on December 8 the Syrian regime.

Maarat Al-Numan, located in southern Idlib governorate, is the second-largest city in the region after Idlib City. Historically, it served as an industrial hub for southern Idlib, with most residents engaged in trade and commerce, unlike the predominantly agricultural areas of rural Idlib. Opposition forces first gained control of the city in 2012 before regime forces retook it in 2020 during a military campaign targeting southern Idlib. This campaign led to the displacement of all its residents to camps in northern Syria, within opposition-controlled areas.

Since then, various regime militias had taken over the city, which remained uninhabited, declaring it a military zone due to its proximity to opposition frontlines in southern Idlib. Among these militias were the Russian-backed “25th Special Mission Forces Division” and Iranian-affiliated groups such as Fatemiyoun and Zainabiyoun.

These militias prohibited displaced residents from returning to Maarat Al-Numan, even those living in regime-controlled areas. Like other areas in southern Idlib’s countryside, regime-contracted crews looted homes in the city, extracting recyclable materials, including steel bars from concrete roofs.

Since 2022, regime-affiliated media had propagated narratives about residents returning to the city, often showcasing celebratory events attended by state and Baath Party officials. However, these reports were mere propaganda, as no actual resettlement occurred. Away from regime media cameras, Maarat Al-Numan was uninhabitable due to the widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure, the division of neighbourhoods among various militias, and the erection of concrete barriers, some bearing the Iranian flag.

These militias not only used Maarat Al-Numan as a command centre for their operations in southern Idlib but also repurposed numerous civilian homes as weapons depots, command posts, and places of worship.

A correspondent for The Syria Report who visited the city after the entry of opposition forces exposed the extent of misinformation spread by the government about restoring services and resettling residents. Eyewitnesses reported rubble blocking neighbourhood roads, most of which were impassable for vehicles, except for parts of the Museum Street and a few main routes previously used for regime-held celebrations.

While private properties were looted, authorities focused on renovating a few government facilities, such as Bahethat Al-Badiya School, reopened on November 14, and the educational services complex, inaugurated on October 30.

AbdulRazak, a forcibly displaced resident living in the Mashhad Ruhin camp in northern Idlib, told The Syria Report that he returned to Maarat al-Numan the day after regime forces left it, only to find his flat in the western neighbourhood, previously undamaged by the fighting, rendered uninhabitable. The 100-square-metre apartment’s roof had been completely dismantled, and its steel reinforcement bars removed.

AbdulRazak explained that his flat, built as a second storey above his father’s house, had a reinforced concrete roof known locally as a “slab.” This type of roof is particularly targeted by looting crews for its steel. He estimated that approximately one tonne of steel had been removed from his roof. The crews, he noted, used various methods to extract the steel, including manual and electric tools, and even set the house on fire to heat the steel, making it easier to loosen. They then cooled the steel with water to induce expansion and contraction, which weakened the surrounding concrete.

Our correspondent documented similar looting in multiple homes, rendering many beyond repair and necessitating complete reconstruction due to structural risks. Approximately 40 percent of the city’s homes were estimated to have been affected by such looting, particularly older houses, single-storey buildings, upper floors of multi-storey buildings, and structures already damaged by combat.

Recent fires, likely set days before regime forces withdrew, were evident in several locations, alongside abandoned looting equipment and piles of salvaged steel.

Displaced resident Ahmed Al-Jarban described the city’s condition as dire, with his joy at returning home overshadowed by the immense destruction caused by the looting of residents’ properties.

The return of all displaced residents to Maarat Al-Numan remains highly challenging. The city, home to an estimated 370,000 people in 2004, has a population now scattered between Turkey, other host countries, and displacement camps in northern Syria, particularly in Mashhad Ruhin near the Turkish border. Many displaced residents cannot afford to repair or rebuild their homes without financial assistance.

Despite the devastation, some returnees have begun repairing salvageable homes. The correspondent witnessed one individual starting to rebuild a roof. However, the widespread destruction, ongoing military instability in surrounding areas, and financial barriers make a full return far from imminent.

Military Judiciary Rejects Lawsuit Reclaiming House Seized by Regime Forces in Suweida

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The military judiciary and the public prosecution in Suweida have rejected a lawsuit filed by the Farhat family against the leader of the pro-regime National Defence Force militia, seeking to reclaim their family home, which has been seized for the past 10 years, and to obtain compensation for the damages caused.

The house, located on the outskirts of the village of Waqm in western rural Suweida, is owned by Ziad Farhat. He lived there with his family until 2014 when Ziad was kidnapped by an armed gang from the Lajat area in rural Daraa. The family chose to leave the house and temporarily relocate from the village after suspecting that two villagers were involved in the kidnapping. A few days after the abduction, the gang negotiated with the family to pay a ransom for Ziad’s release. The family managed to gather around SYP 600,000 (approximately USD 4,000 at the exchange rate at the time) and handed the money over to the gang’s intermediary. However, the intermediary claimed that the kidnappers intercepted him and stole his car along with the money. The family decided to move to Ashrafiyet Sahnaya in Rural Damascus and filed a lawsuit against the two suspected of involvement in Ziad’s kidnapping. Since then, contact with the kidnappers has been lost, and no information about Ziad’s fate has been available to this day.

The house covers an area of 300 square metres and is surrounded by agricultural land of about one hectare, enclosed by a wall. The house building is licensed, and the land is located in a zoned area, with both having a title deed in the name of Ziad Farhat.

Three months after the family left their home, a military group affiliated with the National Defence Force (NDF) militia stormed the house, bringing along the village mayor as a witness to the event in front of the villagers. The militia seized the house without notifying the owners or seeking their permission and turned it into a military base, citing its strategic location as justification.

In early 2015, one of Ziad Farhat’s sons visited the leader of the NDF at his headquarters in the tourist hotel in Suweida city to object to the seizure of the house and request its return. The leader stated that the house’s location was ideal for protecting the area from militants and refused to vacate it until “the security situation in the area stabilises,” as he allegedly described it. The leader verbally promised to compensate for any damages to the house resulting from the military presence.

In 2017, the family learned that the NDF had handed over the house to a unit of the regime’s 15th Division, which operates in the western rural area of Suweida. Despite the relative stability that returned to the region following the reconciliation agreement with armed opposition factions in Daraa and Quneitra in mid-2018, the 15th Division did not vacate the house.

The family avoided visiting the village during this period, until mid-2024, when one of Ziad’s sons inspected the house and found it in a disastrous state, with members of the 15th Division still occupying it. The military personnel prevented the homeowner’s son from taking photos or documenting the damage. However, according to a correspondent for The Syria Report, the house had been looted, leaving no windows, doors, floor tiles, or bathroom ceramics. Even the internal electrical wiring had been removed, and all the furniture, along with the exterior marble, had disappeared. Most painfully, 150 mature olive trees surrounding the house had been uprooted. The officer in charge, a colonel, claimed that they had received the house in this condition from the NDF.

The correspondent said that someone had written in large letters on the house’s wall, “Guardians of the Homeland, peace be upon you,” a phrase clearly visible from afar. This phrase is taken from the Syrian national anthem and is used to describe the Syrian army and its supposed role in protecting the “homeland,” which means in Arabic both homes and the nation itself.

The family approached the military judiciary in Suweida to file a lawsuit against the leader of the NDF, holding him responsible for the house’s seizure and seeking to reclaim the property and compensation for the losses incurred. However, the military judge refused to register the case and advised the family’s lawyer to mediate between them and the NDF leader to resolve the matter amicably. The leader, however, claimed that the NDF was not responsible for the damages, as the house had been handed over to the army and the Ministry of Defence.

With this mediation attempt failing, the family renewed their request to file a lawsuit with the military judge. The judge stipulated that the family must accept the house in its current state before he would register the case. The family refused to take possession of the house as it was, arguing that the extensive damage made accepting it equivalent to waiving their right to compensation, according to the correspondent.

Afterward, the family went to the Palace of Justice in Suweida, making a new attempt to file a lawsuit against the leader of the NDF and to demand an investigation into the extortion of their home. However, the public prosecutor refused to sign off on accepting the lawsuit. It turned out that the public prosecutor is the brother of the NDF leader. The prosecutor claimed he would personally follow up on the case and promised to send a lawyer to the house to verify the complaint.

A few days later, the family received threats from the NDF, warning that family members would be arrested. As a result of similar pressure, the family’s lawyer felt compelled to withdraw from the case.

Faced with these complications and threats, the family became fearful of pursuing their rights through legal channels, knowing that their opponent is the leader of an armed militia and his brother is the public prosecutor. Consequently, the family recently turned to local elders and leaders in Suweida, seeking their mediation with the NDF to reach a solution that would allow them to reclaim their home and receive compensation for the damages incurred.

 

Looting and Illegal Property Sales in Palestinian Refugee Camp

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The looting and demolition of homes to recycle the rubble is one of the major obstacles preventing displaced people from the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp south of Damascus from returning. There are also serious concerns about widespread fraud in the camp involving the sale of properties using forged or stolen documents.

Yarmouk camp, located seven kilometres from the city centre of Damascus, suffered significant destruction during the war and was considered the capital of the Palestinian diaspora. In 2011, it had a population of between 500,000 and 600,000 people, including 160,000 Palestinian refugees. Since its establishment in the 1950s, the camp became a vibrant urban area, extending into the neighbouring Damascus districts. Between 2012-2018, the camp was controlled by opposition forces and Islamist groups, undergoing a crippling siege by the regime forces and continuous bombing, including by Russian aircraft. The fighting caused destruction and the forced displacement of Yarmouk residents.

According to pro-government local media, around four families return daily to the camp, which currently houses about 20,000 people. However, a local correspondent for The Syria Report questioned the accuracy of these numbers, citing more modest estimates from local sources in the camp. They indicated that about 3,000 families, or approximately 15,000 people, currently reside in the camp. The discrepancy in these numbers may be due to the possibility of visiting the camp with temporary security clearance while returning to live there requires security clearance issued by military intelligence.

The correspondent noted that many displaced individuals have managed to repair their homes but have not returned to live in them due to deteriorating security conditions, frequent thefts, lack of transportation, poor services and the presence of stray dogs.

Abu Hassan, a camp resident, told The Syria Report that he received security approval in June 2023 and afterwards visited his home in the 8th of March camp district for the first time after years of displacement. Abu Hassan discovered that his house was in poor condition, looted and with a partially collapsed roof. The house was no longer habitable and needed restoration and re-cladding. In early November 2023, Abu Hassan entered the camp again, only to find a mound of rubble where his house once stood.

The looting crews in the camp were previously made up of small groups, each comprising four to five people. However, after facing violent confrontations with the residents, the groups became larger, including 15-25 workers. According to The Syria Report’s correspondent, looting is ongoing in the Zein, Al-Takamon, 8th of March, and Al-Orouba Street neighbourhoods adjacent to the cities of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad and Yalda. The looting is carried out by crews, most of whose workers are Syrian gipsies, including women, teenagers and children, equipped with hand tools and small trucks. 

While property owners in the camp cannot visit it without temporary security approval, these crews enter the camp daily, leaving with trucks loaded with metals extracted from the rubble through the military security checkpoints that surround all entrances and exits of the camp. The crews leave non-recyclable debris in place, accumulating in the streets and blocking them, despite local community campaigns to remove it. The rubble still blocks alleys and side streets, like the alleys of Palestine Street, Abu Hassan’s stand, Al-Maghareba Street, and the alleys of Ayn Ghazal.

Nevertheless, the real estate sales market in the camp became active in 2023 due to an increase in the number of houses offered for sale through illegal methods. A human rights activist from the camp told The Syria Report that during the armed conflict in the camp from 2012 to 2018, armed groups, both loyalist and opposition, seized personal documents and property deeds from homes whose owners were killed, detained, or displaced fleeing the fighting.

Some of these documents have reappeared for the sale of properties without their owners’ knowledge. The correct property deeds are often used to transfer ownership of these properties, using either correct or forged personal documents and forged sales contracts. In a few cases, the fictitious buyer files a lawsuit to confirm the property sale contract in court. In the presence of two witnesses at the court session, a person claiming to be the seller acknowledges selling the property and receiving payment using the stolen or forged documents. Subsequently, the court issues a ruling confirming the purchase of the property. This court ruling serves as a property deed. It is prevalent in informal areas where properties do not have real estate records, are unlicensed, or are communally owned but not divided.

Demolitions and Looting Continue in Rural Damascus’ Al-Hajar Al-Aswad

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The reasons for the ongoing demolition of properties in Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, administratively a part of the Rural Damascus governorate, are unclear to its returning residents. While the municipality continues to demolish buildings classified as dangerous and at risk of collapse, work crews belonging to regime forces are illegally continuing their demolition process to loot, recycle rubble and extract iron. Demolition and looting operations in the city have not ceased since the regime forces took control of it in mid-2018.

Al-Hajar Al-Aswad is a city and district centre adjacent to Damascus’s Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp. Before 2011, it was home to about half a million people, including the largest number of people displaced from the Golan Heights since the June 1967 war with Israel. A large part of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad consists of informal, unserviced settlements, and it has been a destination for low-income migrants from other Syrian provinces.

The city suffered severe destruction due to combat during the opposition’s control between 2012-2015 and during the period of Islamic State control between 2015-2018. Regime forces regained control in 2018 after a widespread aerial and artillery bombardment campaign that destroyed entire neighbourhoods in the city and forcibly displaced its remaining inhabitants. 

At the end of 2021, the Rural Damascus governorate allowed the conditional return of residents to some neighbourhoods of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad that were judged to be habitable, particularly the Tishreen and Al-Thawra neighbourhoods. However, the governorate did not allow displaced people to return to the Al-Wahda and Al-Istiqlal neighbourhoods until early 2023 and prevented returns to Al-Jazeera and Al-Alaf neighbourhoods.

Demolition operations for buildings classified as dangerous and at risk of collapse are focused in the Al-Jazeera and Al-Alaf neighbourhoods and the city’s outskirts near Al-Qadam, a district in Damascus city. 

The Public Safety Committee of the Rural Damascus governorate oversees part of the demolition operations. Over the past two years, the committee conducted a technical study of the structural condition of buildings in Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, identifying those that are dangerous and at risk of collapse and need to be removed. The latest of these studies took place in the Al-Jazeera neighbourhood in May 2023. Following this study, Al-Hajar Al-Aswad municipality requested homeowners in the neighbourhood to consult with them within 15 days to learn the study results and understand the status of their properties, whether they need removal, reinforcement or repair.

The Syria Report’s correspondent in the area stated that the study conducted by the Public Safety Committee in Al-Jazeera was not accurate and comprehensive for all the buildings there. While some property owners received reports on the structural condition of their properties after consulting with the municipality, others discovered that their buildings were not included in the study despite being located in the neighbourhood. Municipal employees informed the visitors that the study did not cover all the buildings in the Al-Jazeera neighbourhood. They advised some residents to inspect their own homes, marking them with a clear red sign if they were structurally sound, to prevent the municipality from demolishing them. The Syria Report’s correspondent confirmed that the municipality did not provide these visitors with any practical tools or theoretical guides to help them assess the structural safety of their buildings.

Contrary to the municipality’s demolition work, working crews affiliated with regime forces continue demolishing buildings without any licence or approval and with the sole aim of looting the rubble. In September 2023, a three-story building in the Al-Jazeera neighbourhood collapsed during looting by a work crew affiliated with the regime’s Fourth Division, the elite force led by Maher Al-Assad. The local police and security detachment covered up the incident. This followed an incident in November 2022, when seven people were killed due to the collapse of a four-storey building in Al-Jazeera while they were trying to extract iron from the pillars and ceilings of the damaged building.

The correspondent also reported that some families not residing in Al-Hajar Al-Aswad prefer to sell their homes, even at low prices, fearing their demolition by the municipality or looting crews. This is encouraged because the area is informal, and most buildings do not have official property documents. In addition, during the war, many lost ownership documents of their buildings, which are mostly common properties. 

Maram, a widow with three children, told The Syria Report that she offered her house in the Al-Jazeera neighbourhood for sale for SYP 20 million (around USD 1,400) because she cannot return home. She added that the lack of services and security in Al-Hajar Al-Aswad make the idea of returning very uncomfortable for her. She also mentioned that she would not wait for the possibility of returning to the Al-Jazeera neighbourhood, as she might risk losing her home to demolition by looting crews.

Imad, another former resident, told The Syria Report that he used to check on his house in the Tishreen neighbourhood whenever he had the chance. However, during his last visit in December 2023, he found that the stairs and the rooftop of his house had been demolished by looting crews, who had extracted the iron rebar. Imad also noticed that his neighbour’s house and three other nearby houses had been demolished and the iron removed from them. Imad suspects that his house will soon be demolished as the looting crews work systematically, focusing on sections of the neighbourhood until they complete the demolition and looting of the neighbourhood. These crews often start by demolishing the staircases to prevent the owners from returning, then gradually demolishing the rest of the building.

Some of those affected by the looting had filed a complaint with the mayor of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, Khaled Khamees, between August and October 2023 to stop the looting of their homes. Mr Khamees informed those affected at the time that he could not do anything to protect their properties or stand up against the looting crews. He referred them to the police and security forces to file a complaint. The mayor denied any involvement of his municipality in demolishing habitable houses or their looting. Those affected filed a report with the city police station and the security detachment at the beginning of Thalatheen Street but to no avail.

Mr Khamees told the semi-official Al-Watan newspaper on January 9 that 2,100 families had returned to the city, most of them to Al-Thawra neighbourhood and, to a lesser extent, to the Tishreen, Al-Wahda, and Al-Istiqlal neighbourhoods. The Syria Report’s correspondent mentioned that local community sources estimate the number of families that have returned to Al-Hajar Al-Aswad since 2018 to be around 1,300 families, approximately 6,500 people, and added that the services, scarce as they are, are concentrated in Al-Thawra neighbourhood, while the rest of the neighbourhoods are neglected.

No Homes for Returnees to Ayn Al-Fijeh

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Regime forces allowed some displaced residents to return to the Rural Damascus town of Ayn Al-Fijeh in late 2022. Since then, dozens of residents have inspected their homes, but only a few have chosen to settle there permanently due to the extensive damage to their properties and essential infrastructure, especially the drinking water network, difficulties in restoration and lack of efforts to remove rubble.

Ayn Al-Fijeh belongs administratively to the Zabadani district. It is also the centre of a subdistrict that includes nine towns and villages known as the villages of Wadi Barada. The town is about 15 kilometres west of the centre of Damascus, and it’s spring is the primary source of drinking water for the capital city and part of its countryside. The population of Ayn Al-Fijeh was approximately 6,000 before 2011, according to local estimates. The local armed opposition took control of Ayn Al-Fijeh in February 2012, so it was subjected to a punishing siege, continuous bombardment and repeated invasions by the regime forces.

Opposition forces threatened to cut off water to Damascus to improve the conditions for civilians in the town. In December 2016, regime forces backed by the Lebanese Hezbollah militia launched a military operation against the opposition in the town, resulting in significant damage to the Fijeh spring due to artillery and air bombardment. The regime managed to enter Ayn Al-Fijeh on January 28, 2017. It took control of the spring after reaching an agreement that resulted in the forced displacement of 2,100 residents to northern Syria.

In 2018, Law No. 1 was issued, establishing two buffer zones around the Fijeh Spring. A direct zone includes the land immediately surrounding the water source, and an indirect zone surrounds the direct one. The law stipulates the expropriation of properties and parts of properties located within the direct zone. It also established two other buffer zones, direct and indirect, along the water delivery tunnels from the Fijeh spring to Damascus. The law stipulated amending the zoning plan for Ayn Al-Fijeh so that residential areas located within the direct zones would be removed.

Only property owners in the indirect zone around the spring and waterway could repair damaged homes. The law also stipulates that residential facilities built before the enactment of this law in the indirect zone can remain, albeit under a set of conditions. Many houses and residences of the old town of Ayn Al-Fijeh fall within the areas of the direct zone.

While implementing the law, regime forces demolished and bulldozed entire residential neighbourhoods in Ayn Al-Fijeh, whose share of the direct zone was 45 hectares. This area was subject to expropriation and removal of all property contents. Republican Guard forces salvaged what could be recycled and reused from the houses before demolishing them, including ceramics, doors, windows and electrical wiring. After detonating the homes, they also extracted iron rebar. Sources from The Syria Report stated that the Republican Guard sold the iron to a company with large presses to reshape the extracted metals into large cubes. 

Afterwards, the salvaged metal cubes were weighed in a collection area at the entrance to Ayn Al-Fijeh, before loading them into trucks and transporting them to smelting furnaces. The Rural Damascus governorate then brought dozens of heavy construction vehicles to Ayn Al-Fijeh to bulldoze the two buffer zones. Local sources suggest that more than half of the buildings in the town have been destroyed. Only an area of open fields on the side adjacent to the town of Bseima remains habitable and survived the bulldozing operations.

The Rural Damascus governorate later contracted with the General Company for Engineering Studies, affiliated with the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, in August 2020 to prepare detailed zoning plans for a new Wadi Barada suburb east of Ayn Al-Fijeh. The governorate stated this suburb would serve as paid alternative housing for the owners of properties expropriated under Law No. 1 of 2018.

Then in late 2020, for the first time, regime forces allowed some of the town’s displaced residents to briefly visit their properties, though they weren’t allowed to stay permanently. After that, residents were allowed to submit return requests to the temporary building of Ayn Al-Fijeh’s local council in the town of Jdeidat Al-Wadi, as Ayn Al-Fijeh’s original council building had been destroyed. After obtaining security approval for a return request, residents can submit a home repair request only if their repairable home is located in the indirect zone. 

A local correspondent for The Syria Report indicated that anyone wishing to repair their home must submit a request to the local council to obtain a repair permit, accompanied by documents proving their ownership of the property. Afterwards, they must obtain a report from the Construction Safety Committee in the Rural Damascus governorate specifying the percentage of damage in the building they wish to return to.

According to The Syria Report’s sources, repair permits were granted for some homes where the damage exceeded 60 percent. However, receiving a repair permit is also contingent on obtaining security approval. In Ayn Al-Fijeh, this approval is given by the Political Security Branch and the Republican Guard, the two forces controlling the town.

On May 5, 2023, the head of the local council in the town told the semi-official newspaper Al-Watan that only a few dozen people currently reside in the town, due to the lack of drinking water available. He added that the process of repairing the drinking water network has halted, while the process of repairing the sewage networks has not yet begun. This is due to the town being subject to Law No. 1 of 2018, which mandates the creation of the buffer zones around the Fijeh spring, and requires that the construction sewage networks in the town be done in a specific technical manner that prevents contamination. Meanwhile, the electricity network is in no better condition, and out of three transformers, only one has been installed, though has yet to be connected to the network.

According to The Syria Report’s correspondent, there are still more than 4,000 cubic metres of rubble in the town, which neither the Rural Damascus governorate’s Technical Services Directorate nor the public construction companies have begun to remove. Local council work crews, in cooperation with small private crews working under temporary contracts, have opened most of the main roads and moved the rubble to smaller side streets. Sometimes residents resort to manually moving the rubble from in front of their homes on the side roads, and placing it on the main roads instead. In any case, the rubble that still remains lacks metal or other recyclable materials, which could explain the lack of interest of the Republican Guard and the Fourth Division in removing it.

On January 10, 2023, the head of the Al-Fijeh local council, Mohammed Shibli, told the state-run news agency SANA that 500 families had submitted requests to repair their homes. The requests were approved after the governorate’s Construction Safety Committee concluded that the homes were sound and could be repaired. He added that the families had begun removing the rubble from the homes, and he vowed to work on rehabilitating local infrastructure in parallel with the rubble removal operations.

But local sources expressed doubts to The Syria Report about the municipality having granted 500 repair permits, adding that the number of houses in the town that could be repaired is much lower than that. A source from the town explained that the main dilemma is the difficulty in obtaining new permits for completely destroyed buildings, outside the buffer zone and waterway areas of the spring, and within the zoned area of the town. This is partly because most of the town’s homes were multi-storey buildings consisting of a number of apartments, and were commonly owned rather than subdivided. Each construction permit application must be accompanied by a subdivision plan, which lists each owner and their location, and this in turn requires an agreement between the owners and a subdivision of the property in question. If there are multiple owners for one property and a subdivision plan is available in accordance with their shares, each of the owners must obtain security approval to get a building permit. But because some of those owners have been forcibly displaced or are wanted by security forces, they are unable to obtain security approval, which prevents the issuance of a building permit. In other cases, the financial costs of building permits have prevented some owners from agreeing to share the burden.

The Rubble After the Earthquake in Lattakia

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Since the February 6 earthquake, the rubble in Lattakia has been treated as a sensitive security issue and a taboo topic. The issue is a “red line” for some people. Everything mentioned on the topic relates to the contents of the collapsed homes, such as furnishings and other valuables that remained intact, rather than the rubble itself. 

Legally, the rubble belongs to the homeowners. However, owners who spoke with The Syria Report said they had yet to receive compensation for the debris of their homes and properties. They also said they did not have the opportunity to gather their valuables from beneath the rubble before it was removed. Most owners said they don’t know if they can still collect the rubble of their collapsed homes and are too afraid to inquire about the topic.

A source from Lattakia Governorate told The Syria Report that the government transported the earthquake rubble to a dump on the new Aleppo highway. He added that the rubble would be recycled and some of it used as gravel in public road paving projects. However, much of the rubble contains metals such as iron, copper, and aluminium, which “influential merchants” ‘will likely use unofficially, according to the source. He said that this aspect of the rubble is well-known, though the source refused to elaborate further. 

Law No. 3 of 2018, which addresses the removal of rubble from buildings after natural or unnatural disasters (or those subject to laws requiring their demolition), gave the owners of demolished real estate the right to the value of their rubble. However, the law left local administrative units responsible for deciding the value of such rubble after selling it in public auctions or recycling it and deducting the demolition and removal costs. Law No. 3 was not mentioned at any stage of the building damage and rubble removal underway in Lattakia post-earthquake. 

A source from the Lattakia City Council told The Syria Report that widespread fears around discussing the rubble are unrealistic. Instead, the source said, the problem lies with certain parties in local municipalities trying to cover up corruption and theft during rubble removal by spreading rumours that the topic was a sensitive security issue or a red line. According to this source, the municipal work crews removing the rubble committed major violations against private property. 

According to the source, the matter is not merely about “low-income workers having a right to benefit [from the rubble].” Still, it is more systematic and overseen by officials in the municipal councils. Often, the crews responsible for debris removal prevent locals from accompanying them during their work under the pretence of protecting them, while in reality, they are monopolising the debris sites, digging them for valuable items, and stealing them. What remains of the furniture is often unfit for use or recycling. Interestingly, according to the source, the residents have registered no official complaints against the municipal authorities for theft.

In contrast, an informed source from the Lattakia governorate council told The Syria Report that the executive office has been holding regular meetings to follow up on demolishing buildings at risk of collapse and removing their debris. The council has followed the necessary legal procedures during the demolition and deportation operations, including the need for the following documents:

  • Police unit control document;
  • Property owner’s consent to the demolition and removal; authenticated by the notary;
  • Decisions issued by the councils of administrative units to demolish the property based on reports from structural safety committees.

According to the source, each meeting reaffirmed the right of building owners to access the rubble of their homes and to be informed about the details of the demolition and deportation process all the way to the final dump site.

However, the debris removal process did not start until a month after the earthquake. This process included debris from completely collapsed buildings, as well as from severely damaged buildings at risk of collapse due to the quake, which was demolished by crews belonging to the Lattakia City Council and Lattakia governorate, with the help of crews from the Military Construction Establishment (MCE) branch in Lattakia governorate. The MCE is a contractor affiliated with the Ministry of Defence.

The process began with the collapsed building in Lattakia city’s Al-Sijn “prison” neighbourhood. One of the building’s residents said on Facebook that the municipality asked for SYP 70 million to remove the debris. One worker claimed that this payment was to cover the debris removal and sorting costs and allow the residents to take whatever they wanted from their properties. This caused widespread confusion about the responsibilities of the municipalities and the governorate in removing debris and maintaining private property. After that, the municipality suddenly removed the debris from the site without collecting any payment from the former residents or informing them of the removal timeline. This suspicious behaviour has led to rumours spreading amongst city residents that the debris does not belong to the homeowners.

In another instance, an old, dilapidated four-storey building in the Al-Ramal Al-Janoubi area of Lattakia collapsed due to the earthquake. Eyewitnesses recounted that the demolition and debris removal crews from the city council were quick to remove the building’s debris, and the workers did not hesitate to steal valuable items from amongst the rubble, including gold and jewellery. When one of the former residents asked about what happened, officials in the city council denied any thefts occurred.

In the city of Jableh, the bottom three storeys of a four-storey building collapsed. Although the fourth storey partially survived, it was tilted to a dangerous degree. The building owners managed to evacuate furnishings from the fourth storey with the help of a crew from the Jableh municipality. Due to their close relationship with a senior officer, the building owners could steer the crew’s work towards their benefit. They kept the debris for use in reconstructing the building.

Debris removal crews from Lattakia municipalities are still at work today, clearing rubble and reopening closed roads. Teams from the Civil Defence and the Lattakia Fire Brigade accompany these crews. However, violations continue to occur. A volunteer in an NGO was offered temporary work by a relative who works in a demolition and debris removal crew for one of the municipalities. The invitation indicated that the real compensation for the work is the potential to find valuable belongings among the debris. Within this atmosphere of chaos, personal relationships and nepotism, the young volunteer considered this routine and said he was grateful to his relative for providing him with beneficial work.

Meanwhile, a family in one rural Lattakia village could extract all the contents of their partially collapsed house through a crew affiliated with the village municipality and accompanied by members of one of the security agencies where a family member works. The family protected all the contents of their house, and they did not suffer from any theft or looting. They also knew the location of the debris disposal and visited it to retrieve some recyclable items.

Some Displaced Residents Allowed to Return to New Neighbourhoods in Al-Hajar Al-Aswad

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Since early 2023, the Rural Damascus governorate has permitted displaced residents from the Al-Wahda and Al-Istiqlal neighbourhoods of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad to apply to return home. Previous returns in 2022 were limited to residents who had been displaced from the Tishreen and Al-Thawra neighbourhoods. 

Al-Hajar Al-Aswad is a city and the administrative centre of a subdistrict within the Rural Damascus governorate and borders the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp. About a half million people lived in Al-Hajar Al-Aswad before 2011, and at the time it was home to the largest population of displaced families who had fled the Golan Heights in the June 1967 war with Israel. Because of this dense concentration of residents from the Golan’s Quneitra governorate, the two governorates of Rural Damascus and Quneitra have overlapping authority in Al-Haja Al-Aswad. In any case, much of the city consists of informal settlements that are unzoned and unserved, and which became a destination for low-income Syrians moving to the greater Damascus area from other governorates. 

The city faced severe wartime destruction during the period of opposition control in 2012-2015, as well as during Islamic State control in 2015-2018. Regime forces regained control of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad in 2018 after a massive aerial and artillery bombardment campaign that destroyed entire neighbourhoods and forcibly displaced remaining residents. 

Until late 2022, only residents from the Tishreen and Al-Thawra neighbourhoods were allowed to return to the city, because those areas were the least affected by wartime damages. However, rubble remains scattered along the main road connecting those two neighbourhoods, as well as in many other areas, despite individual efforts by returnees to remove it at their own expense. In late 2022, a delegation of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad residents met with the Rural Damascus governor, Safwan Abu Saada, to complain about the low quality of public services in Tishreen and Al-Thawra. They demanded that the governorate take necessary steps to halt the looting and theft of their newly restored homes, as well as speed up rehabilitation of water, electricity and sewage networks and paving roads. Abu Saada responded that the governorate and relevant authorities were working hard to secure those necessities, and stressed that it was important for the local community to cooperate and participate in reconstruction. 

Meanwhile, Al-Wahda and Al-Istiqlal neighbourhoods, which before 2011 had a majority of Turkmen and Circassian residents from the Golan Heights, suffered worse damage from the war, which delayed returns. In late 2022, some residents who had been displaced from Al-Istiqlal took part in a volunteer campaign to clean the neighbourhood, including removing rubble from homes and some streets. They collected the debris in public squares, in coordination with the municipality. Still, at the time they were not allowed to return home, and so they left once again after they had completed the campaign. During a tour of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad in January 2023 Quneitra governor Mutaz Abu Al-Nasr Jamran said that he had ordered work crews from his governorate to clean Al-Wahda and Al-Istiqlal neighbourhoods. However, these crews did not start cleaning the main streets and some side streets of the two neighbourhoods until March 13 — and even then only spent four days on the job. 

Residents from Al-Jazira and Al-Alaf neighbourhoods are still prohibited from returning, as those areas were mostly destroyed due to a network of tunnels the Islamic State dug beneath them during its period of control. The two neighbourhoods also suffered intense bombing during the final military campaign in 2018 by regime and Russian forces. Khaled Khamis, head of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad City Council, posted to Facebook on March 11 that important steps had already been taken to rehabilitate the city’s infrastructure and services. He added that returns would later be allowed to Al-Jazira neighbourhood, but only after the governorate removed buildings there at risk of collapse. 

Notably, the Quneitra governorate is the one that always begins removing the rubble from neighbourhoods where the Rural Damascus has allowed residents to return. After such work begins, the Quneitra governorate then withdraws its work crews and machinery without explanation and Rural Damascus governorate work crews take over the job. This is what happened in Al-Thawra and Tishreen neighbourhoods in early 2022 — at the time, the Quneitra governorate and Golan notables obtained approval for residents to return. It started removing rubble and then left for the Rural Damascus governorate to take over.

Residents have criticised this unusual behaviour by the Quneitra governorate, which has yet to rehabilitate any of its centres or schools in Al-Hajar Al-Aswad. A source familiar with the governorate council’s operations told The Syria Report that this is due to funding issues. While the Rural Damascus governorate often receives aid from local and international NGOs for early recovery project contracts it undertook in the city, the Quneitra governorate has been unable to receive any of this assistance. Instead, it relies solely on its own budget and whatever it can collect in accordance with the Financial Law of Administrative Units. 

Syrian authorities are seeking out international organisations to obtain funding for early recovery projects. These include rehabilitation of schools, water, electricity and sewage networks and rubble removal. It appears that Syrian authorities have set such rehabilitation as a precondition for return of displaced residents to their hometowns. 

In addition to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), currently a team from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East is helping rehabilitate Al-Hajar Al-Aswad with help from Norwegian Church Aid, which in March restored the city’s medical centre before handing it over to the Rural Damascus Directorate of Health. The French NGO Première Urgence Internationale also rehabilitated the city’s third mixed-gender school alongside the Rural Damascus governorate and the Ministry of Education. 

The Al-Hajar Al-Aswad City Council head said in March 2023 that there had been 3,100 applications to return to the city, of which 2,700 were approved. He added that around 350 homes had been restored, 140 of them with assistance from SARC. Finally, he vowed to restore the city’s drinking water network soon. Still, a local correspondent for The Syria Report said that returns to the city were still low, and that only about 1,000 people (200 families) had returned to settle there. Though many displaced residents return to their homes sporadically to check on their homes, most choose not to resettle in the area, as it still lacks basic services such as water and electricity. 

According to the correspondent, returnees may now undergo security checks at the municipal office in the district branch of the Military Security detachment on Al-Thalatheen Street in neighbouring Yarmouk before they enter Al-Hajar Al-Aswad. Al-Thalatheen Street is the main entryway into the city. The procedures for obtaining security approval have not changed, and those wishing to return must submit an application to Al-Hajar Al-Aswad municipality, which then sends their files to the district branch. There, the applications undergo study before either approval or rejection. Those who have lost their property ownership documents have still not been able to obtain security approval, despite having followed the municipality’s instructions: getting a record from the police station, obtaining an electricity or water payment receipt, and providing a paper from their neighbourhood mukhtar in which two witnesses from the area testify that the applicant is a local property owner. 

One displaced man told The Syria Report that he visits Al-Hajar Al-Aswad every month to check on his house. Each time, he finds that conditions have worsened due to looting, especially in the Al-Alaf and Al-Jazira neighourhoods. Looters take anything that can be sold or recycled, including the city’s newly installed lighting poles. On top of that, the checkpoint at the entrance to the city imposes fees on residents hoping to bring in furniture for their homes.

Yarmouk Camp: Civil Initiatives for Rubble Removal

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In March, activists, local leaders and NGOs launched an initiative to facilitate the return of residents to the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus. Their campaign included removing rubble from some streets, albeit without a legal framework to regulate it and without any simultaneous effort to document who owns the debris.

Damascus Governor Muhammad Kreishati visited Yarmouk on March 11 to launch a campaign called Hand in Hand, meant to help revitalise the camp, in partnership with the Initiative of the Civil Society body, which includes a group of local leaders, NGOs, and civil associations and relief groups active in the camp. According to officials in charge, the goal of the Initiative is to coordinate efforts between civil society and the Damascus governorate to rehabilitate infrastructure in Yarmouk. 

As part of the Hand in Hand campaign, various civil and relief associations in the camp helped install solar-powered street lighting, set drinking water tanks, planted ornamental trees and distributed free bread to residents, among other tasks. The campaign aims to clean the main street of Yarmouk camp and Loubia and Palestine streets, maintain and construct road medians and sidewalks, and fill in holes. Other initiatives are planned to follow this one, focused on rebuilding the camp and allowing residents to return. Officials in charge did not disclose further details on the duration of the campaigns or funding.

Mr Kreishati said 3,000 civil society volunteers took part in the Hand in Hand campaign, in addition to governorate work crews. The campaign cleared rubble from a large portion of the nearby streets and between buildings. He added that the governorate made significant progress in providing water and sewage services to all the main streets in the camp and was currently coordinating with Damascus’s Directorate of Electricity to activate two electrical substations to meet the needs of the 1,800 families in Yarmouk.

A well-informed source told The Syria Report that the Damascus governorate is the entity that oversees rubble removal. Meanwhile, NGOs and civil and relief organisations provide work crews and secure financial liquidity to cover operating costs. One of the most prominent organisations involved in this work has been the Al-Quds Charitable Association, which brought in 36-member work crews along with three vehicles: a medium-sized truck and two small trucks meant to assist with ten days of rubble removal. The association later said on its Facebook account that it would keep working until it cleared the entire camp of rubble.

Al-Quds Charitable Association was established in 2011. Most of its members were part of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement. The association’s work receives official media coverage. The Ministry of Local Administration has also honoured its members several times. It has been responsible for the most significant activities related to rubble removal, street lighting and the provision of water tanks in the camp.

According to the well-informed source, most NGOs working in Yarmouk are affiliated with pro-regime Palestinian factions. Despite their aid efforts in the camp, their primary focus is collecting donations to fund these factions. This explains the different names of these NGOs and the existence of multiple similar NGOs affiliated with a single faction.

In any case, camp residents have complained about the slow and irregular pace of debris removal. In several instances, debris was moved from one site to another within the camp without being taken away, such as in the Waseem Project neighbourhood. Moreover, roads remain blocked between the camp and adjacent areas due to debris and earthen berms, including Al-Tadhamon, Yalda, and Al-Hajar Al-Aswad. Homes under restoration and repair work have also been targeted by theft, including the removal of iron rebar from ceilings and walls. Such thefts are especially rampant in the March 8th neighbourhood and some areas between Yarmouk and Al-Hajar Al-Aswad. 

The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria reported on April 10 that the Damascus governorate changed various signage and symbols in Yarmouk after finishing restoration and rehabilitation work at the camp’s entrance. This included removing Palestinian flags and symbols from the main entrance, replacing the word “camp” with “street” and using the term Yarmouk area instead of Yarmouk camp. Meanwhile, the pro-opposition news site Saut Al-Asima reported on March 16 that residents wishing to return to Yarmouk and Al-Hajar Al-Aswad would no longer be required to visit the Palestine Branch of Military Security or the National Security Office to obtain approval. Instead, they must submit a written request to a recently established military security detachment located on Yarmouk’s Thalatheen Street.

Looters Invade Yarmouk Camp

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Scavenging for and recycling rubble appears to have become a booming trade for looting crews in damaged areas, where security forces have restricted access from most residents hoping to return home. This is especially the case in Damascus’ Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp. 

According to The Syria Report’s local correspondent, Deir Yassine, Al-Aroubeh and 15th Street are the areas of the camp most impacted by the looting. Crews of fewer than ten workers each carry out the looting with light machinery, picking apart roofs and columns to extract iron. These teams enter the camp regularly via checkpoints operated by Military Security, one of the country’s four main security services, on Al-Thalatheen Street. They are allowed access through security permissions issued by the Fourth Division that grant them the freedom to enter and exit the camp. 

Most of these workers are day labourers employed by scrap traders. They collect scrap taken from the rubble in different parts of the camp, especially Deir Yassine and 15th Street, similar to the looting process in neighbouring Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, a city just outside Damascus. Afterwards, traders take the scrap out of the camp and pass through the security checkpoints to iron smelting factories in Rural Damascus. 

In general, the looting crews divide the camp amongst themselves, so each crew gets a sector of buildings. Aside from these professional work crews, groups of less organised, self-employed workers also hunt for scrap, gather iron, and loot homes. These workers pay bribes to personnel at the security checkpoints that allow them to enter the camp. They often attack residents wishing to check on their properties, hitting them with rocks and sticks to scare them from returning. 

Eyewitnesses told The Syria Report that the looting, demolitions and iron extractions also target undamaged and habitable buildings. Sometimes the looting teams demolish columns on ground storeys, causing the buildings to collapse and making it easier to extract iron from the rubble. These demolitions have killed some looters in recent years in the Jobar neighbourhood of Damascus and Al-Hajar Al-Aswad. 

The demotions have also, at times, affected buildings in the camp that had already been restored from wartime damage. Abu Ahmad, a Yarmouk resident, told The Syria Report that he had been working to regain his apartment on the second storey of a building near Al-Madares Street to move back home. However, he recently found that the stairwell of his building had been completely demolished and the iron extracted from it, making it difficult to reach the second storey. 

Salma, another resident, said she had obtained approval to return to her house in Yarmouk, which was still habitable. She spent her family’s savings rehabilitating the home and installing windows and doors, only to find that looters had dismantled and stolen everything. 

The looting comes amid an unclear announcement by the Damascus governor in January calling on residents and homeowners to visit the Yarmouk Services Department to remove their collapsed homes and to demolish their homes if they are at risk of total or partial collapse. The announcement did not clarify what exactly was demanded of these residents, i.e. whether they would be responsible for removing the homes themselves or whether the Yarmouk Services Department would undertake the task. 

Building Collapses, Killing Seven, During Looting in Damascus Suburb

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Seven people were killed on November 2, 2022, when a four-storey building collapsed in the Rural Damascus governorate city of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad. The victims had been there to extract iron from the damaged building’s columns and roof in order to loot and recycle it. This illicit business–the rubble trade–appears to be attracting new companies as it enjoys military and security protection. 

Al-Hajar Al-Aswad is a city and administrative centre of a district within the Rural Damascus governorate, and sits adjacent to the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp. Before 2011, Al-Hajar Al-Aswad had about half a million residents and was known as host to the largest number of Golan Heights residents who had been displaced by the June 1967 war. Much of the city consists of informal housing that was never properly zoned or serviced, and which became destinations for low-income Syrians coming to the capital region from other parts of the country. 

The city faced massive wartime damage when the opposition controlled it from 2012 to 2015, and again during the period of Islamic State control in 2015-2018. Regime forces regained control of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad in 2018 after an airstrikes and artillery campaign that destroyed entire neighbourhoods and forcibly displaced any remaining residents. 

November’s collapsed building was located in Al-Jazeereh neighbourhood in the northwestern part of the city. Severe damage to that neighbourhood has prevented residents from returning to it. The Rural Damascus governorate has previously allowed conditional returns for residents of the city’s Tishreen and Al-Thawra neighbourhoods, which are considered safely inhabitable. However, according to The Syria Report’s correspondent in the area, only 150 out of thousands who applied were permitted to return. 

Pro-regime media reported that the head of the local council of Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad had denied there were any casualties in the building collapse. Rather, he stated that the building was uninhabited and there were only material damages. The reason behind his denial could be that Al-Jazeereh neighbourhood is still uninhabited and returns are not allowed, making it difficult to explain any deaths without acknowledging the looting operations. 

However, eyewitnesses confirmed to The Syria Report that the building collapsed while looters were breaking apart the roof to extract iron rebar. A woman and a 16-year-old boy were among the dead, while the rest were members of a family from Al-Jumlan tribe, which hails from East Ghouta. 

A work crew from the Rural Damascus governorate came to the scene of the collapsed building equipped with heavy machinery, spending two days searching the rubble for bodies. Personnel from Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad police station and Military Security branch, which controls the area, prevented people from getting near the site.

One Al-Hajar Al-Aswad resident told The Syria Report that they saw large trucks removing debris extracted from the city’s damaged buildings on more than one occasion. Those trucks passed through security checkpoints without objections, The Syria Report’s correspondent added. 

Regime forces closed off the entrances to Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad with dirt mounds in 2018, though one entrance from Al-Thalatheen Street was kept open. This entrance is overseen by two checkpoints that closely inspect anyone who has been permitted to pass through. 

According to The Syria Report’s correspondent, the looting crews are given security permissions by the army’s Fourth Division. These permissions allow the crews to enter Al-Hajar Al-Aswad for work. The looting crews collect the rubble in certain locations of the city, where rubble dealers then go purchase it. The most important material for sale is iron, which is transported via trucks to furnaces to be recycled.

Syrian Company for Metals and Investments

The Syria Report’s correspondent cited sources in Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad who said some of those trucks belong to the Syrian Company for Metals and Investments, whose articles of association had been approved by the Decision No. 3061/2018 of the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection. Under Decision No. 3061, it has the right to import and export all types of metals, iron, plastics and aluminium, as well as sort and transport rubble, trade construction and cladding materials and cement, in addition to other activities. 

The Syria Report could not independently confirm whether the rubble trucks indeed belonged to this company. 

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