BEKAA VALLEY, Lebanon: In the decade since Syria’s regime pronounced her jailed husband dead, Ramya Al-Sous was threatened by security forces, locked out of her spouse’s estate and forced to flee abroad. The mother of three, now a refugee living in Lebanon, was never told how her husband died and is unable to sell or rent the properties confiscated by authorities. “By virtue of me being a woman, everything becomes nearly impossible,” she said, echoing a plight shared by many wives and widows of Syrian prisoners. But the 40-year-old wants to put up a fight.

“My children would not have suffered as much if it had been me who was detained. They were left with nothing, but I insist on winning something back,” she said. Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime waged a brutal crackdown on an Arab Spring-inspired uprising in 2011, sparking a war that has killed nearly half a million people. Around the same number of people, mostly men, are estimated to have been detained in regime prisons since, with tens of thousands dying either under torture or due to poor conditions. Outside prison walls, their wives are anything but free, facing a maze of red tape in a society and legal system that favors men, said Ghazwan Kronfol, a Syrian lawyer living in Istanbul. Without their husbands’ formal death certificates, widows cannot claim inheritance or property ownership, he said. Nor can they access their dead husbands’ real estate if it was confiscated or escrowed by the state, the lawyer added. Worse still, guardianship over their children is not guaranteed, with judges often granting it to a male next of kin. “All of this comes on top of financial blackmail and sexual harassment” by security officers, Kronfol said. Syria’s 2012 anti-terrorism law stipulates the government can temporarily or permanently seize the properties of prisoners accused of terrorism — a blanket charge used to detain civilians suspected of opposition links. The government is believed to have seized $1.54 billion worth of prisoner assets since 2011, according to an April report by The Association of Detainees and The Missing in Sednaya Prison. The Turkey-based watchdog was founded by former detainees held in Sednaya, a jail on the outskirts of Damascus which is the largest in the country and has become a by-word for torture and the darkest abuses of the Syrian regime. Sous’s home and farmland were among the properties escrowed after her husband was arrested in a raid in 2013 and later hit with terrorism-related charges she says were trumped up. A few months later, authorities handed her a “corpse number”, she said. Alone and poor, she spent years being bounced around from one security branch to another as she tried to clear bureaucratic hurdles. Sous said she was met mainly with harassment and intimidation. “Women are easy prey,” she said. Fearing persecution by security forces, she fled to Lebanon in 2016, clutching the old red and white plastic bag in which she keeps her property deeds and reams of other official documents. She has little money left but continues to pay bribes and lawyer fees in an attempt to reclaim assets from the state. “I want to sell them, not for me but for my children.” Salma, a 43-year-old mother of four, also fled to Lebanon after her husband disappeared inside the black hole of Syria’s prison system. The one time she enquired about his fate in 2015, security forces locked her in a room and threatened her. “I never asked about him again,” Salma said, asking to use a pseudonym due to security concerns. When she tried to sell her husband’s car and home, she found they had been seized by the state. “I sold all my jewelry to buy that house,” she said. In their ordeal, some women have found a rare silver lining with the empowerment that being left to their own devices has brought about. Tuqqa, a 45-year-old mother of five whose husband also disappeared in prison, argued her life was already hard before the war due to social and religious conservatism. “I wasn’t even allowed to open the front door of the house, let alone go out to buy groceries or bread,” she said. But all that changed when she became the sole guardian of her children. She eventually moved to Lebanon, where she secured work and attended livelihood trainings and workshops run by aid groups, a leap from her previously sheltered life. When she was sexually harassed by her landlord, she blamed herself: “That is what we were taught: women are always to blame.” Her children may not inherit a family home from their father but Tuqqa is adamant they will inherit new values from her. “I am not raising my children the way I was raised,” she said. “War has given women strength. They are learning how to say ‘no’,” said a Damascus lawyer. While the odds are stacked against her, Tuqqa said she feels ready to face the challenges ahead. “I lost a lot, but I became a strong woman,” Tuqqa said. “I am no longer the woman living behind closed doors.”

MOSCOW: Russia forces based in Syria on Friday said four Israeli jets had launched a total of four cruise missiles and 16 guided aerial bombs against a research facility in the city of Masyaf on Thursday, Russian agencies reported. Syrian troops using Russian-made anti-aircraft weapons shot down two missiles and seven guided bombs, Tass and RIA said, quoting a senior Russian officer. The attacks damaged equipment at the facility, he said. Russian forces have remained in Syria since 2015 when they helped turn the tide in a civil war in favor of President Bashar Assad. For several years, Israel has been mounting attacks on what it has described as Iranian-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran-backed forces, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, have deployed to help Assad fight anti-government forces.

RAMALLAH: About 4,600 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are taking part in a series of protests designed to highlight their ill treatment, including staging a hunger strike that is set to start on Thursday.

The inmates say they are being deprived of their fundamental rights and forced to endure unbearable living conditions.

Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, told Arab News that the protests were necessary to highlight the problems Israel had created. The prisoners’ actions were “a battle for self-defense,” he said.

Fares, who spent 16 years in Israeli prisons, said the protesters included women, children, the sick and the elderly, some of whom had been sentenced to prison terms of up to 1,000 years.

The protests have enjoyed widespread support among Palestinians and demonstrations are expected to take place across Palestinian territories next week as a show of solidarity.

Fares said there had been an escalation in arrests of Palestinians from the West Bank, with hundreds of people being detained over the past four months since the Israeli military launched its “breaking waves” campaign.

Also, about 730 people were being held in administrative detention without trial because of charges brought against them by Shin Bet, Israel’s security agency.

He highlighted the case of Khalil Al-Awawda, who has been on hunger strike for more than 167 days in protest against his administrative detention without trial.

Despite Al-Awawda’s failing health, the Israeli authorities refused to release him, Fares said.

The prisoners’ decision to stage their protests followed the failure of appeals to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the UN and the EU to pressure the Israeli authorities to stop detaining Palestinians, Fares said.

He accused the Israeli government of using Palestinian prisoners as pawns in its election campaign, but said that was likely to backfire if the street demonstrations held in solidarity with the protesters continued until the time of the polls.

PLO Executive Committee Secretary-General Hussein Al-Sheikh has called for the broadest official and popular support for the prisoners and urged international institutions to intervene immediately.

He also said the Israeli government should abide by and implement all of the understandings that were made before last Ramadan.

Qadri Abu Bakr, head of the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Authority, urged all international human rights institutions to have an immediate presence in prisons and detention centers to “prevent any foolishness” on the part of the Israeli authorities in the coming days.

Palestinian prisoners should not be left alone to face “this hatred from Israeli authorities,” he said.

BEIRUT: Authorities in Lebanon are racing against the clock to resolve an electricity crisis that threatens to plunge the country into total darkness, officials said on Friday.

Utility provider Electricity of Lebanon said it was “fighting tooth and nail” to find a solution before the lights go out at Beirut’s airport, port and presidential palace.

The problem arose after Al-Zahrani power plant ran out of gas oil and ceased operations.

Roumieh Central Prison is also on the brink of darkness. The families of its inmates blocked a road in Baalbek on Friday in protest against the situation. They said their relatives had been deprived of food since catering companies stopped supplying prisons.

A source from EDL said the company was now set to use grade B gas oil instead of grade A, after the idea was approved by its board of directors, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Energy Minister Walid Fayad.

The plan also requires the use of the remaining diesel from the Tyre thermal power plant, so EDL can restart the Zouk thermal power plant on Saturday.

The authorities also agreed to reduce the production at Al-Zahrani plant from about 200 megawatts to 40 MW to provide electricity to the airport, port, Roumieh prison, water pumps, sewers, Lebanese University, parliament, government headquarters and the presidential palace.

EDL said it was awaiting delivery of a gas oil shipment from Iraq but that could take between 20 and 30 days to arrive.

Electricity production at EDL’s plants has been dependent on the Lebanese-Iraqi agreement, as the dates for when electricity from Jordan will arrive and the extraction of natural gas from Egypt will begin are still unknown.

Funding for both projects has yet to be secured by the relevant authorities.

After meeting President Michel Aoun on Friday to discuss the crisis, Fayad said resolving the problem would require the use of the gas oil from Al-Jiyeh and Zouk power plants.

The meeting discussed the possibility of renewing the Iraqi deal, allowing Lebanon to receive 1 million additional tons of fuel after the first quantity ran out, he said.

Such a quantity would secure about three hours of electricity, he added.

Fayad said authorities were previously relying on the World Bank, the Egyptian gas and electricity from Jordan. But he added that the World Bank imposed new conditions, including increasing the tariff, developing a plan to cover the cost and carrying out procedures for the establishment of the regulatory body.

EDL’s board of directors issued a decision to increase the tariff in parallel with the increase of electricity hours.

The matter required the approval of the finance minister and the government, Fayad said, adding that the go-ahead could be given in exceptional circumstances by the president and caretaker prime minister.

Fayad said Iraq would provide about 40,000 tons but Lebanon would still need about 110,000 tons so a separate deal would have to be reached with another country.

Algeria had expressed its readiness to help in that regard, he added.

Concerns have also been raised about a possible interruption of the telecommunications sector despite it having its own generators. Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Johnny Corm confirmed on Friday that the sector did not rely on EDL to operate.

RAMALLAH: The directors of seven Palestinian civil rights institutions shut down by an Israeli army decision on Aug. 18 have decided to reopen their establishments and carry out their activities as usual.

Arab News spoke to Shawan Jabarin, director of Al-Haq — the most prominent Palestinian human rights organization — which the Israeli army shut down over what it called allegations of financing terrorism.

“We are continuing our work from our offices, not to challenge or claim heroism, but because we believe that we are defending human rights and we will not respond to aggressor and arrogance occupation decisions that design its laws against us as he wishes,” Jabarin told Arab News.

Jabarin said that Israel legislated laws in a way that suited its interests and security measures.

He called on the Palestinian Authority to take political steps against the Israeli military decision, which significantly diminished its prestige.

Al-Haq and the other Palestinian rights groups have received full backing from the EU, which said it would continue to fund them unless Israel provided credible evidence of links to terrorism.

Jabarin praised the positive global solidarity with the closed institutions. The support, however, has been insufficient to reverse the Israeli decision, he said.

A few days after the Israeli armed forces’ shutdown of the seven civil rights organizations, a Shin Bet officer summoned Jabarin for interrogation at the office of Israeli armed forces’ base near Ramallah.

Jabarin rejected the request. The Shin Bet office then threatened that he might pay a high personal price if he resumed operations of Al-Haq, he said.

“Our institutions are working because we realize that working in the field of human rights is not a picnic but a great challenge,” Jabarin said. “We will continue to cooperate with the ICC and document the crimes of the Israeli war criminals.”

“We demand the European Union take a serious stance that includes imposing economic, political and diplomatic sanctions on Israel.”

Jabarin called for practical steps against Israel, adding that the time for statements and denunciations was over.

He said that the decision to close the institutions came after remarks by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Berlin.

Abbas referred to the massacres committed by Israel against the Palestinians from 1947 to the present day, and likened Israel’s massacres of Palestinians to the Holocaust. This provoked unprecedented anger in Israel against him.

Jabarin said that Israel believed that the timing of its move came at a moment when the EU would be ashamed to defend these Palestinian institutions after the president’s statement.

The focus of these institutions’ efforts on the Israeli army’s killing of Palestinian children in Gaza provoked great anger among the Israeli military and political establishment, with the Israeli elections also on the way, he said.

Jabarin believes that the current government has an interest in showing a willingness to attack the Palestinians with all its ferocity and strength in targeting the seven civil society rights organizations, closing them down by a military decision.

Jabarin said that he saw the decision as a message to the nine EU countries that signed a statement on July 12.

In the statement, the EU said that it stood behind Palestinian civil society organizations and would continue to support them, and that it did not accept the Israeli narrative about these institutions, which accused them of supporting terrorism.

The nine European countries declared on July 12 that they wanted to continue “cooperating” with six Palestinian civil society institutions that the Israeli occupation authorities had claimed in October 2021 as terrorist organizations, as Israel had failed to provide sufficient proof of their involvement in terror finance.

On Aug. 17, the Israel defense forces military commander rejected an objection by five Palestinian non-governmental organizations against their proscriptions as “unlawful organizations.”

That same day, the Israeli defense minister announced that the terrorist designation of three of these organizations, issued in October 2021 under the Israeli Counter-Terrorism law, had been made permanent.

Three other organizations have appealed their designations.

On Aug. 18, Israeli forces ordered the closure of the offices of seven organizations — including all six NGOs designated as terrorist organizations in November 2021 — and searched their offices in Ramallah.

Equipment was confiscated, in some cases destroyed, and confidential files were seized.

Israeli authorities also summoned the directors of three of these organizations for questioning.

Tor Wennesland, UN special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said in his briefing to the UN Security Council on the situation in the Middle East on Aug. 25: “I reiterate the secretary-general’s concern about the shrinking space for civil society in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

The organizations shut down were: Al-Haq Human Rights establishment, A-Damir for Prisoners Care and Human Rights, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, the International Movement for Defense of Children-Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, the Union of Health Work Committees and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees.

The systematic Israeli targeting of those seven Palestinian civil society institutions began in October 2021.

The Israeli army classified them as “terrorists” under the pretext of “financing the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine” with the aim of silencing them and preventing them from exposing human rights violations against the Palestinian people by draining their financial resources.

Meanwhile, Palestinian senior human rights experts believe that Israel wants to restrict the activities of the Palestinian human rights institutions that worked to submit files to the International Criminal Court and were able to change world opinion about Palestinian human rights issues.

They added that Israel discovered that the Palestinians were able to communicate their views to the outside world and change the global discourse from a pro-Israel political discourse to a human rights discourse in solidarity with Palestinian rights.

Consequently, Israel felt that the Palestinian human rights movement was capable and successful in that field and must be subject to some restrictions.  

According to Palestinian human rights experts, Israel tried to stop the moral discourse of these institutions by accusing them of financing terrorism and being terrorist institutions.

Israel told European parties who contacted it about those organizations that it would not cancel the decision as it considered these organizations to be terrorists. At the same time, Israel said that it would not take any action or escalate steps against the six Palestinian institutions, but did, the human rights experts said.

BEIRUT: A Lebanese submarine has found the remains of at least 10 migrants who drowned when their boat sank earlier this year off the coast of Lebanon with about 30 people on board, the navy announced Friday. The boat, carrying dozens of Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians trying to migrate by sea to Italy, went down more than 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the port of Tripoli, following a confrontation with the Lebanese navy. Ten bodies were recovered that night, including one of a child, while 48 survivors were pulled from the Mediterranean Sea. According to navy estimates, 30 people were believed to have gone down with the boat. Since Monday, the small, 3-person underwater craft — a Pisces VI submarine — has been searching for the remains. The wreck was located on Wednesday, at a depth of some 450 meters (about 1,470 feet). The circumstances of the vessel's sinking are disputed to this day. Survivors say their vessel was rammed by the Lebanese navy, while the military claims the migrants’ boat collided with a navy vessel while trying to get away. Capt. Scott Waters, who operated the craft, told reporters at a press conference in Tripoli Friday that the first body they found was outside the wreck but much of it had decayed since the sinking, with mostly bits of clothing and some bones remaining intact. He said the second body was found coming up from the wreckage. Waters said the crew identified four more bodies inside the wreckage and a substantial amount of debris around the vessel. At least four other bodies were found away from the wreck. Some of the people who tried to escape the boat, he assumed, got “tangled in that debris.” “One of the very last footage and images we took," he added, was of the remains of a person, an arm around another. “They died holding each other.” Tom Zreika, a Lebanese-Australian and the chairman of Australian charity AusRelief that helped bring the submarine to Lebanon, said the boat was a “fair degree under silt,” making it difficult to retrieve it. Zreika said what’s next is for Lebanon to bring the sunken boat out but that remains a difficult task. Lebanon's navy chief, Col. Haitham Dinnawi, said all the video footage from Waters' crew will be handed over to the judiciary as it investigates the sinking. Tripoli lawmaker Ashraf Rifi helped lease the submarine for cash-strapped Lebanon through Zreika and his own brother, Jamal Rifi, who lives in Sydney. Rifi and Zreika told The Sydney Morning Herald last month that an anonymous donor had given just over $295,000 to lease the submarine. The April sinking was the greatest migrant tragedy for Lebanon in recent years and put the government further on the defensive at a time when the country is in economic free fall and public trust in the state and its institutions is rapidly crumbling. With a population of about 6 million people, including 1 million Syrian refugees, Lebanon has been mired since 2019 in an economic meltdown that has plunged three quarters of the population into poverty. Once a country that received refugees, Lebanon has become a launching pad for dangerous migration by sea to Europe. As the crisis deepened, more Lebanese, as well as Syrian and Palestinian refugees have set off to sea, with security agencies reporting foiled migration attempts almost weekly.