They Vanished in Syria’s Long Occupation of Lebanon. Now Their Families Want Answers.

They Vanished in Syria’s Long Occupation of Lebanon. Now Their Families Want Answers.

Hoda al-Ali searched for her son for 34 years, until the day she drew her final breath.

In 1986, when he was 18, he was arrested at a checkpoint by Syrian troops occupying Lebanon. A single mother of 10, Ms. al-Ali would scrape together what little she earned as a seamstress and travel every few months into neighboring Syria to scour its prisons. When her legs grew frail, her children took over, chasing the same breadcrumbs, never finding answers.

Then, in December, a video emerged.

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria had just been toppled by a lightning rebel offensive. In the chaos, a news crew filming outside a Syrian prison captured the image of an older man, disheveled and dazed, emerging from its gates. The family froze. They were sure it was the missing son, Ali, and their story quickly made headlines.

But days passed. Then weeks. Ali never returned. Hope faded. Lebanese officials offered no answers. Journalists stopped calling.

Months later, the search grinds on.

“We need to continue my mother’s mission,” said Ali’s brother Moammar, clutching an old photograph of him in the family’s home in northern Lebanon. “We still have hope he is alive.”

Comments

No comments yet. Why don’t you start the discussion?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *