Syrian citizens gather outside Saydnaya Convent during the lighting of the Christmas tree, in Saydnaya town on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Sarah Latifa had feared that her Christian community in Syria may struggle to celebrate its first Christmas since Islamist-led rebels toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.

But at a church in Damascus’s historic centre, surrounded by some 500 faithful who were singing psalms on Christmas Eve on Tuesday, she could breathe a sigh of relief.

“It wasn’t easy to come together in the current circumstances and to joyfully pray, but thank God, we did it,” Latifa told AFP at mass at the capital’s Syriac Orthodox cathedral of Saint George.

Syria’s rulers who toppled Assad’s government on December 8 have since sought to assure religious and ethnic minorities that their rights would be upheld.

But for some in the Christian community of several hundred thousands, the promises made by the new Islamist leadership have done little to soothe their fears in a country scarred by years of civil war.

Hundreds took to the streets of Damascus on Tuesday to demand their rights be respected, after a Christmas tree was set ablaze in a town in central Syria.

A video on social media showed hooded fighters setting fire to the tree in the Christian-majority town of Suqaylabiyah, near Hama.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said they were foreign jihadists. A local religious leader from Syria’s victorious Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) condemned the torching.

At the Saint George Cathedral, Latifa said that even though the road towards a new Syria may seem “tumultuous or uncertain”, the future can be better “if we walk hand in hand”.

-‘We don’t belong’

Before the war began in 2011, Syria was home to about one million Christians, or about five percent of the population, according to analyst Fabrice Balanche.

Now, he told AFP, only up to 300,000 of them are still in the country.

Assad, who hails from the Alawite minority and ruled with an iron fist, had long presented himself as a protector of minority groups in Syria, whose population is majority Sunni Muslim.

The new administration appointed by HTS — a group which is rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda — has adopted an inclusive discourse, seeking to reassure groups in the multi-confessional and multi-ethnic country.

In this transformed political landscape, Syrian Christians are determined to make their voices heard.

In an overnight protest over the Christmas tree burning, Georges, who only gave his first name, condemned “sectarianism” and “injustice against Christians”.

“If we’re not allowed to live our Christian faith in our country, as we used to, then we don’t belong here anymore,” he said.

In his first sermon in Damascus since Assad’s fall, John X, the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Antioch, expressed his hope that a new constitution would be drawn up with the participation of “all parts of the Syrian mosaic”.

‘Afraid of the unknown’

In Bab Touma, a Christian-majority neighbourhood of Damascus, carols rang out from a cafe which was festively decorated and lit, and fitted with a Christmas tree.

Owner Yamen Basmar, 45, said that some people “are afraid” of the new situation.

“Many come to ask me whether I still sell alcohol, or if we still organise events,” he said.

“In reality, nothing has changed,” Basmar stressed, even though he said sales have gone down by 50 percent because “people are afraid anyway”.

Last Christmas, “we closed at 3:00 am. Now we close at 11:00 pm,” Basmar said.

One Damascus restaurant held a Christmas party, attended by dozens of people, Christians and Muslims alike.

“The party was really nice, not what we had imagined,” said 42-year-old Emma Siufji.

“As Christians this year, we’re afraid of the unknown.”

Her only wish this holiday season, Siufji told AFP, was that no Syrian would have to leave the country, as happened to millions during the war.

“No one would want to be forced to leave.”

Israeli soldiers walk near armored vehicles parked along the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights from Syria, on December 8, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday (December 8, 2024) he had ordered the Israeli military to “seize” a demilitarised buffer zone on the border with Syria after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

The Israeli premier said a 50-year-old “disengagement agreement” between the two countries had collapsed and “Syrian forces have abandoned their positions”.

Syria war updates: December 8, 2024

As a result, he said, “I directed the IDF [military] yesterday to seize the buffer zone and the commanding positions nearby. We will not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our border.”

The announcement, which Mr. Netanyahu made while visiting the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights which abut the buffer zone, came after the military said it had deployed forces to the area.

Israel had already said the day before, as the Islamist-led rebels swiftly advanced across Syria, that its soldiers entered the UN-patrolled buffer zone to assist peacekeepers in repelling an attack.

On Sunday, the Army announced a troop deployment there, citing “the possible entry of armed individuals into the buffer zone”.

“Following the recent events in Syria… the IDF (military) has deployed forces in the buffer zone and in several other places necessary for its defence, to ensure the safety of the communities of the Golan Heights and the citizens of Israel,” a military statement said.

Israeli forces “will continue to operate as long as necessary in order to preserve the buffer zone and defend Israel”, it added.

The statement stressed that the Israeli military “is not interfering with the internal events in Syria”.

Since the rebel coalition, led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, began its renewed offensive against government forces on November 27, Syrian government forces have left positions near the Israeli-held Golan, according to a war monitor.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Saturday that Syrian army forces had withdrawn from positions in Quneitra province, which includes part of the Golan Heights.

Most of the plateau has been occupied since 1967 by Israel, which later annexed it in a move not recognised by most of the international community.

In 1974, the buffer zone was established, separating the Israeli-held and Syrian territories, with UN peacekeepers stationed there since.

A UN Peacekeeping spokesperson said on Saturday that UNDOF personnel had observed “unidentified armed individuals in the area of separation, including approximately 20 who went into one of the mission’s positions in the northern part of the area of separation”.

The Israeli army said it was “assisting the UN forces in repelling the attack”.

The UN spokesperson said that “peacekeepers continue to carry out their mandated activities on the Golan”.

On Sunday, Lebanese media outlets reported an Israeli strike on Quneitra targeting an arms depot. The Israeli military declined to comment.

In a separate statement, the Israeli military said schools in the northern Golan Heights, in an area covering four Druze towns, would move to online teaching, also declaring a “closed military zone” in agricultural lands in the area.

Early in Syria’s war, which began in 2011 following the repression of anti-government protests, rebel forces and jihadist groups had taken over parts of Quneitra province.

In August 2014, Islamist rebels attacked UNDOF and took more than 40 Fijian peacekeepers hostage, holding them captive for almost two weeks.