An Iranian flag hangs as smoke rises after what the Iranian media said was an Israeli strike on a building close to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria, April 1, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Firas Makdesi
Israel’s assassination of the senior leaders of the Hezbollah terror group, including its chief, Hassan Nasrallah, was mourned by many Shiite Muslims and celebrated by even larger numbers of Sunni Arabs.
But for one group of people in the small mountain town of Madaya, Syria, the elimination of Hezbollah’s senior leadership was especially important.
Madaya is located about 40km north-west of Syria’s capital, Damascus, and about 52km from the Lebanon border. During the Syrian civil war, the town was the site of one of Hezbollah’s cruelest and most vicious attacks.
Between July 2015 and April 2017, Madaya was besieged by Hezbollah. Hezbollah sent thousands of its fighters from Lebanon to support Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in his battle to defeat anti-regime forces opposed to his authoritarian regime.
This campaign to was characterized by widespread violence, including massacres, and inhuman acts of cruelty against civilians.
By October 2016, one million Syrians were actively under siege according to news reports, while some 4.5 million were in need of humanitarian aid.
Hezbollah planted some 12,000 landmines around Madaya, and created 65 checkpoints manned by snipers to stop food, fuel, and medicine being delivered to the town, and prevent residents from leaving.
According to survivor testimony, Hezbollah killed children, raped women, and buried people alive.
An International Committee of the Red Cross worker described the townspeople as experiencing a “colossal level of suffering.”
Over the course of the 22 months of the siege, Madaya dissolved into a genuine hellscape for its inhabitants and those sheltering there, more than 20,000 at the time, as Madaya took in people from nearby villages who were attempting to escape the terrorist group.
Disease and infection including typhoid and meningitis broke out, but the town’s two doctors had nothing but the most basic supplies at just one field hospital.
There was also a lack of access to clean water, electricity, and basic goods. At the time, Doctors Without Borders Director of Operations Brice de le Vingne said, “There is no way in or out, leaving the people to die,” he said.
There were reports of starving residents resorting to eating grass to stay alive, and desperate residents walking through the 12,000-strong minefield in search of food, many losing limbs or their lives in the process.
Starving residents were described as “walking skeletons.”
And so, following news of attacks against thousands of Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon and Syria via explosives hidden in their pagers and walkie talkies on Sept. 17 and 18, widely attributed to Israel, scores of Syrians openly celebrated the demise of those who had tortured and murdered their family, friends, and neighbors.
Many Syrians also took to social media to express their satisfaction over the death of senior Hezbollah commander Hussein Ali Ghandour in a highly sophisticated Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern Dahiyeh district on Sept. 20. Syrian activist Ashakaki tweeted: “No one should ask the residents of Madaya why they are rejoicing today. When one of the murderers is gone, the world becomes better.”
Syrians also openly celebrated the death of long-time Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah one week later, on Sept. 27, with fireworks. Ahmed al-Ali, who lost multiple friends to Hezbollah terrorists, described it as the “the most beautiful day of my life.”
Yasmine Muhammad said upon hearing of Nasrallah’s death, “I consider this revenge for the thousands of Syrians who were killed by Hezbollah, the main support of Bashar al-Assad. Hezbollah committed the most heinous massacres against Syrians, and it also participated in the starvation and displacement of thousands of Syrians.”
The starvation and displacement that Muhammad spoke of was a hallmark of Hezbollah’s siege warfare across Syria.
Today, while it has reduced in intensity, Syria’s ongoing civil war — now in its 14th year — is still not over. Tens of thousands of Iranian-backed Shi’ite terror operatives, including Hezbollah, remain entrenched in Syria, forming part of Iran’s “Ring of Fire” around Israel that includes Yemen, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), Iran, Iraq, and Syria.
But as the reactions of many Syrians to Israel’s strikes against Hezbollah demonstrate, it is not just Israelis who have suffered as a result of Iran’s strategy of aggression and expansionism.
And many Syrians, Lebanese, and others, whether or not they are able to say so publicly, will be rooting for Israel to finish the job of demolishing Hezbollah, a central part of Iran’s “Ring of Fire.”
