DayofPal– In the midst of Israel’s unrelenting war and the endless displacement of Palestinians in Gaza for more than fourteen agonizing months, an unexpected beacon of hope emerged as Syrian refugees, worn down by years of exile, awoke to the stunning news—Bashar Al-Assad’s regime had come to a sudden end.
For the first time in a long, the possibility of returning to their homeland no longer seemed like a distant dream. On December 8, 2024, without a drop of blood spilled in Damascus, Syrian opposition fighters seized the capital, toppling Assad’s regime.
After 13 years of civil war and over five decades of iron-fisted control by the Assad family, the seemingly unshakable had crumbled.
For the exiled Syrians in Gaza, the victory ignited long-dormant hopes of rebuilding their lives on the land they once called home. Wareef Qassem, a young Syrian man from Aleppo, was forced to flee Assad’s regime to Gaza in 2012.
In this besieged strip, Wareef built a life—marrying a Gazan woman, raising their daughter Elia, and opening a small restaurant in the heart of Gaza City. Over time, Qassem became one with the city sharing Gazans their joys and struggles under the relentless shadow of Israeli occupation.
On December 8, 2024, the day news broke of Assad’s regime falling, Qassem took to Facebook to share a message of triumph, releasing hope that Gaza, one day, will get triamph and face the same good end of Syria.
“On my wedding day, I held my flag high, believing with all my heart that Syria would one day rise free from oppression and tyranny. Today, I celebrate the wedding of Syria itself—reborn, free, a Syria of tolerance, culture, history, and civilization. This is the Syria I have dreamed of.”
Qassem shared his story with The New Arab, reflecting on a life shaped by war and displacement. “I left Aleppo 13 years ago, with explosive barrels raining down on us. Today, I live in Gaza, where Israeli airstrikes and genocide are a constant reality,” he said.
“It is as if it is an irony of fate that I had to flee from Assad’s crimes in Syria to suffer Israel’s crimes in Gaza,” he added.
Qassem still remembers the devastation inflicted on his family by the Assad regime. “That regime took my uncle’s life, reduced our home in Aleppo to rubble, and another uncle remains missing in their prisons to this day.”
Yet, even amid Gaza’s anguish, Qassem holds hope—not just for himself but for the people he has come to call his own. “The people of Gaza deserve what Syrians might now finally have: a chance at freedom, at safety, at a life free from endless killing and destruction.”
As he clings to the hope of surviving this war, Qassem dreams of returning to his family in Aleppo. However, another obstacle looms—Syrian refugees in Gaza face expired passports, complicating any prospect of return.
He calls on the Syrian embassy in Ramallah to step in, urging them to renew their documents and grant them a path home.
“My return to Aleppo does not mean that I will leave Gaza forever, which I love. Rather, I will open another branch of my restaurant in my homeland, and I will continue to move between Syria and Gaza,” he added.
Mahmoud Abu Shawish, head of the Syrian Refugee Coordination Committee in Gaza, told The New Arab that the Syrian war had once driven 26 families to seek refuge in Gaza.
Today, only nine families remain, as the rest have been forced to leave, seeking safety and stability in Western countries. For many, Gaza’s relentless wars and harsh living conditions became an all-too-familiar echo of the struggles they fled in Syria.
“About 265 families of Syrian Palestinians have also sought refuge in Gaza due to the conflict in Syria. They are Palestinians who displaced from their homeland to Syria in 1948, as part of the events of the Palestinian Nakba,” Abu Shawish added.
“Today, after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the Syrian refugees in Gaza have only one dream: the end of the Israeli war and allowing them to return to their homeland, Syria,” he concluded.
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