How the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi seeks to encourage interfaith dialogue and promote harmony

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The Abrahamic Family House, designed by Ghanaian-British architect Sir David Adjaye, innovatively recounts the common values of Islam, Christianity and Judaism and builds bridges of understanding between the faiths. (WAM)
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Updated 06 July 2023
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How the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi seeks to encourage interfaith dialogue and promote harmony

  • The facility, which opened its doors to the public in March, allows Muslims, Christians and Jews to get together and share ideas
  • It was established after Pope Francis and Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed El-Tayeb signed the Document on Human Fraternity

DUBAI: A rabbi, a bishop and an imam walk into a room. It sounds like the start of a good joke. In fact, it represents a historic moment for interfaith relations that was brought about by the signing of the Document on Human Fraternity in February 2019.

Signed by Pope Francis and Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed El-Tayeb, the document called on followers of the three Abrahamic faiths to create bonds of peace and dialogue. This led to the establishment of the Abrahamic Family House, which opened in Abu Dhabi in March.

Featuring a synagogue, a church and a mosque, each decorated with variations on the same pillars — zigzagged, straight and arched — the house gives each place of worship its own distinctive visual identity, while hinting at their many similarities.




The facility located in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Cultural District was inaugurated by religious and UAE officials in February as a place of mutual respect, where worshippers, including the local Jewish minority can feel secure. (WAM photo)

The idea was to provide followers of the three faiths with a single location where they could worship separately on the same site. And thanks to its roof garden, visitors of all faiths are also able to mingle freely and share ideas.

The intimate venue is a new concept for interfaith relations and one that is being closely watched by governments and faith leaders worldwide. If it proves successful, the idea could catch on elsewhere.

It is not the intention of the founders of the facility to in any way merge the three religions. Nevertheless, Mahmoud Nagah, the imam of the house’s Eminence Ahmed El-Tayeb Mosque, said many people were initially confused about its purpose.

“When the Abrahamic Family House was first established and inaugurated there were a lot of misconceptions that were raised, suggesting it was calling for one religion, for the creation of one religion, which is the Abrahamic religion,” Nagah told Arab News.




Imam Mahmoud Nagah being interviewed by Arab News senior online editor Peter Harrison. (AN photo)

It was an idea that became “entrenched in people’s hearts,” he added. However, such misconceptions were quickly corrected, he explained, when people had the chance to visit the house and experience it for themselves.

“When people come to the mosque — I’m speaking about Muslims — they say: ‘It’s a normal mosque like other mosques in the UAE,’” said Nagah.

And the design of the three houses of worship is egalitarian; each is contained within a space of equal size to the others.

“We are here acting totally independently from the church and from the synagogue,” said Nagah. “This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t gather together or engage in interfaith dialogue to search for the points that gather us together, not to divide us.”

Indeed, despite these clearly delineated spaces, the house collectively acts as a symbol of religious tolerance and a place in which all faiths can learn to understand one another in harmony.

“We shouldn’t use religions as something that divides people or that causes people to be in a state of conflict with each other,” said Nagah. At the very least, he said, religious faiths should pull communities together.

“Remove the barriers of ignorance that, from my personal point of view, are considered the strongest enemy for people,” he said. “Ignorance makes people unable to communicate with each other.”

Muslims account for about three-quarters of the UAE’s population, while the various Christian sects make up approximately 10 percent. The remaining 15 percent include a number of other faiths, including Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jews, according to figures published by the Washington Post.

It is worth noting that Emiratis — full citizens of the UAE — make up only 11 percent of the country’s total population.

The country’s constitution guarantees the freedom to worship, as long as doing so does not go against public policy. Islam is the official religion and there are laws in place outlawing blasphemy, proselytizing by non-Muslims, and conversion from Islam.




Vatican official Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, speaking during the launch of the Abrahamic Family House, said the new facility "is a concrete example for people of different religions, cultures, traditions, and beliefs to return to the essential: love of neighbor.” (WAM photo).

Beginning in September 2020, the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco normalized relations with Israel when they signed the US-brokered Abraham Accords, thereby opening the door to mutual trade, diplomatic relations and security cooperation. It also cleared the way for people of the Jewish faith to visit and emigrate to the UAE.

There remains a lot of skepticism about the Abraham Accords and their role in the Middle East peace process, especially as Israeli authorities continue to occupy Palestinian territories and support the building of settlements.

But such differences with Israel on political issues have not halted the growth of the UAE’s Jewish population. The Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue at the Abrahamic Family House is the first purpose-built synagogue in the Gulf in almost 100 years and its chief rabbi, Yehuda Sarna, said the Jewish population continues to grow “organically.”

“It grew because people felt safe. They felt that there was a high quality of life. They felt like they could be themselves. That’s the thing that hooked me,” Sarna, who is originally from Canada, told Arab News.

“I’ve been coming here since 2010. What hooked me was the mystery of why Jewish people would pick up and leave countries that they were born in and decide to move here. And it’s because they feel welcome.”




Sir Ephraim Mirvis, chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, said, “In a world in which differences can separate us, let us say here that our shared values shall exist for the sake of our universal aspirations.” (WAM photo)

Hostility toward Jewish populations remains a very real issue in countries worldwide but not in the UAE, said Sarna.

“There are moments, at different points, when there have been spikes in antisemitic actions around the world,” he said. “What’s interesting is to see that (Jewish) people here, in the UAE, are the ones who are now calling their friends and relatives in other countries to check on them. But here they felt safe.”

The synagogue’s design was chosen by the Jewish community without any outside intervention, he explained.

“There was no point at which anything was imposed, architecturally. This was emblematic of the approach as a whole,” Sarna said.

“There are Jews who were children of Holocaust survivors who have come here. There are people who were imprisoned by the Houthis in Yemen because of their religion. There are people who escaped threats by Saddam Hussein and his regime (in Iraq) who have come here. There are people who ran away just with their siblings from Iran. We’ve come here and now are part of this Jewish community.”




Intention notes are inscribed on the wall inside the Jewish place of worship that is part of the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi. (SRPC photo)

Given the initial success of the Abrahamic Family House, Sarna said he can definitely see a bright future for similar projects in other parts of the world, which could help create cohesive bonds between followers of all faiths, despite their differences.

Such differences, Sarna and Nagah agree, must not stand in the way of peaceful coexistence — which is the ultimate aim of the Abrahamic Family House.

Paulo Martinelli shares their view. The vicar of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia and chief pastor of St. Francis Church, he was appointed by Pope Francis to lead Catholic prayer at the Abrahamic Family House. He also leads the Catholic communities in Yemen and Oman. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this combined community in the three countries was 1 million strong, concentrated primarily in the UAE.

“It’s so beautiful to gather together here to celebrate mass, to pray together,” Martinelli told Arab News.

“Also here, of course, is a particularly interesting place because it’s not only a Catholic church but it’s a Catholic church in the Abrahamic Family House, in which we have three different places of worship.




Bishop Paulo Martinelli being interviewed by Arab News senior online editor Peter Harrison. (SRPC photo)

“We (the three faiths) are clearly different but we are also together. So we can share our experiences and show the world that it is possible to work together, even though we are different.”

Martinelli believes there is a huge potential for similar interfaith sites to succeed elsewhere in the world.

“I think it is a great opportunity to have such a place and to show that it’s possible to be different and to be, at the same time, together to share values,” he said.

The Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi opened to the public in March. Since then, a rabbi, a bishop and an imam have regularly been seen walking into the same building. Although they pray in separate spaces, they share a common dream of peaceful religious coexistence.

And such a goal is certainly no joke.

 


Why Israel’s Gaza reoccupation threat is fueling fears of regional spillover

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Why Israel’s Gaza reoccupation threat is fueling fears of regional spillover

  • Analysts warn of slide toward ethnic cleansing as Israel signals plans for indefinite military control over enclave
  • Palestinian plight worsens as far-right voices increasingly influence Israeli war aims ahead of Trump’s Gulf tour

LONDON: For the people of Gaza, the threat of destruction, displacement and death at the hands of the Israeli military is nothing new.

But for the next week they will living with a countdown to a threatened operation that would be unprecedented: the complete and indefinite occupation of Gaza by Israel, and the forcing of its Palestinian population into a tiny area in the south of the strip.

If such an unthinkable end-game exercise were to go ahead — and reports that tens of thousands of Israeli reservists are being called up suggests it might — critics of the plan say Israel appears to have forgotten the lessons of the events that led to its own creation in 1948.

According to sources inside the Israeli government, the only thing standing between the Palestinians of Gaza and this 21st-century Nakba is next week’s visit to the region by US President Donald Trump, who is due to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE between Tuesday and Friday. 

A picture taken near Israel's border with Gaza shows Israeli armored vehicles and bulldozers returning to the besieged Palestinian territory on May 8, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP) 

On Tuesday this week an unnamed Israeli defense official told AP that the operation would not be launched before Trump had left the region, adding there was a “window of opportunity” for a ceasefire and a hostage deal during the president’s visit.

And so, the countdown to the military operation began. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his security cabinet had approved an “intensive” renewed offensive against Hamas in Gaza, and that Palestinians would be moved “for their own safety.”

“Last night we stayed up late in the cabinet and decided on an intensive operation in Gaza,” Netanyahu said.

A US-backed truce between Israel and Hamas ended in March, after only two months, when Israel resumed its attacks.

It was, Netanyahu added, seeming to tether a scapegoat to the decision, “the chief of staff’s recommendation to proceed, as he put it, toward the defeat of Hamas — and along the way, he believes this will also help us rescue the hostages.”

News of the plan triggered immediate protests outside Israel’s parliament by families of the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas. Few among them believe the plan has anything to do with a genuine desire to see their loved ones freed.

Israelis demonstrate in front of the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on May 10, 2025, calling on the Netanyahu government to end the war and to secure the release of the hostages held since the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas militants. (AFP) 

The chief of the general staff of the Israel Defense Forces is retired Major-General Eyal Zamir, a favorite of the far-right members of Israel’s government, who was appointed only last month. His predecessor resigned, after taking responsibility for Israel’s military failings during the Hamas attack in October 2023.

“I’m pretty sure Zamir is praying that he will not have to execute this plan,” Ahron Bregman, a UK-based Israeli historian and senior teaching fellow at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, and a former IDF officer, told Arab News. “He’s experienced enough to know that the operation might well kill the remaining Israeli hostages, or lead to a situation where the hostages are left to die in the tunnels without water or food, never to be found.

“As I have always maintained, Israel cannot destroy Hamas. Hamas, weak, bleeding and exhausted, will still be in the Gaza Strip when this hopeless war is over,” he added.

Israeli troops, who have evicted Palestinians from so-called security zones, already occupy about one-third of Gaza. If implemented, the new plan would see the seizure of the entire territory, with Gaza’s remaining two million Palestinians forced toward the south.

The UN has already expressed alarm at Israel’s plan to expand its operation in Gaza. “This will inevitably lead to countless more civilians killed and the further destruction of Gaza,” UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Monday. “What’s imperative now is an end to the violence, not more civilian deaths and destruction.”

He added: “Gaza is, and must remain, an integral part of a future Palestinian state.”

Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s security cabinet has voted to end distribution of aid by international NGOs and UN bodies, and to give the job to as-yet unnamed private companies. At the beginning of the month, the UN condemned Israel’s decision two months ago to halt humanitarian aid as a “cruel collective punishment” of the Palestinian population.

On Friday, Mike Huckabee, US ambassador to Israel, said a US-backed mechanism for distributing aid into Gaza should take effect soon but he gave few details. Israel and the US have both indicated in recent days that they were preparing to restore aid through mechanisms that would bypass Hamas.

“The Israeli military plan for Gaza is mainly aimed at satisfying the far-right elements in Netanyahu’s government,” said Bregman. “The new idea here is seizing chunks of the Gaza Strip and staying there, not getting out, as used to be the case.”

Right-wing, pro-settler members of the Israeli Cabinet, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Givr, “hope that staying inside will eventually lead to the resettling of the Gaza Strip by Jewish settlers who will resort to the tactics they employ on the West Bank, building settlements even if ‘official Israel’ opposes it,” he added. “They also trust far-right elements in the IDF — and the IDF is packed with them, especially in the ground forces — to turn a blind eye and enable the resettling of the Strip.” 

But, he warned, “if ordered to implement the Gaza plan, Israeli troops must refuse to carry out the orders, lest they turn themselves into war criminals.”

On Tuesday, the day after Netanyahu’s announcement, Smotrich told a settlements conference in the West Bank that Gaza would soon be “totally destroyed,” and that its entire population would be “concentrated” in a narrow strip of land along the Egyptian border, which he euphemistically described as a “humanitarian zone.” 

Here, he added, ”they will be totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza, and will be looking for relocation to begin a new life in other places.”

Sir John Jenkins, former UK ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria, and British consul-general in Jerusalem, told Arab News: “There are clearly elements within the Israeli Cabinet who want to reoccupy some or even all of Gaza and there are others who want to establish settlements. What is unclear is how extensive or long-term such plans are — and whether they have Netanyahu’s full support.

“He has clearly got his own tactical reasons for going along with some of the wilder claims: he needs to keep Smotrich and Ben Gvir inside the tent in order to maintain his government. He also probably genuinely believes — as, quite rightly, do most Israelis and a lot of outsiders — that Hamas cannot be allowed to retain political control of Gaza when the fighting stops.

“But he must also know that without a long-term political plan, this won’t work. Israel needs its neighbors to support it in its quest for security. And they will do so only if they have an answer to the question: How do we collectively make Israeli security compatible with Palestinian self-determination?”

Burcu Ozcelik, senior research fellow for Middle East security at the Royal United Services Institute, said it remains unclear whether Israel’s threat of reoccupation is “a form of deterrence, a credible threat, or a last-ditch effort to (force) Hamas’ hand.”

However, “the fear of abandoning the Israeli hostages to a terrible fate is too much to bear for the majority of the Israeli polity, and this would inevitably have consequences for the current Israeli government,” he told Arab News.

President Trump’s upcoming visit may also change the script. “It is rumored that Trump is not on board with Israel’s escalation of the war in Gaza, especially ahead of his visit to the Gulf next week,” said Ozcelik. “The White House has been pressing for a deal to announce as a triumph and a hostage-release announcement would be a crucial win for (US special envoy to the Middle East) Steve Witkoff, but so far it has been elusive.”

Furthermore, “under the threat of a looming ‘forever’ Israeli reoccupation of Gaza, Saudi Arabia cannot be expected to agree to any deal with the US that is conditional on normalization with Israel. So, this, in a counterintuitive way, throws open a path for US-Saudi security cooperation,” Ozcelik added.

Doubts also surround the announcement by Witkoff that the US will set up a private foundation to deliver aid to Gaza, without involving the IDF or the US government. 

“The UN and key international humanitarian agencies have already rejected both the US and Israeli aid proposals, labelling them highly unworkable,” Kelly Petillo, program manager, MENA, at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Arab News.

“And in the context of Israel’s campaign of starvation by stopping humanitarian aid since March and the targeting of civilians, hospitals, schools and so on, and of the new US administration’s rhetoric around the Gaza war and overall positioning, there are clearly doubts over the lack of good will by the delivering authorities, which means that Palestinians will be starved and eventually be forced to leave. 

“This would amount to ethnic cleansing and also corresponds to weaponizing aid and using starvation as a weapon of war. It will mean that considerations over how many people will receive aid, or where distribution will occur, would be based on strategic or military considerations, rather than humanitarian ones.” 

Israel’s apparent ambition to force Palestinians out of Gaza can only further stoke regional tensions, added Petillo. 

“Regional actors, (most) of all Egypt and Jordan, have been very clear in their total rejection of any displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, and of the possibility of them receiving these refugees. In particular, Egypt has come up with a proposal to address aid and other issues as a way to counter this scenario. 

“But the potential displacement of Palestinians in Gaza is nothing less than an existential threat for these countries which are also receiving so many other refugees — from Syria to Sudan and more. Syria and Lebanon have also been floated as possible destinations for Gazans, but this would be a major red line for these countries too.”

Echoing Petillo’s concerns, Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East North Africa Program at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, said the Israeli plan to capture and indefinitely occupy Gaza “carries grave policy implications at multiple layers and levels for Israel, Palestinians and the region.”

Vakil said: “Beyond deepening an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis, it risks entrenching violent resistance, destabilizing neighboring states and triggering large-scale displacement that may be viewed internationally as ethnic cleansing — particularly in light of right-wing Israeli rhetoric and emboldening signals from past US policies.

“While Israel consistently sees Gaza as an existential security crisis that needs a military solution, it needs to take a step back and consider the larger and longer implications for its isolation, integration and values as a democracy,” she added. “Today, Arab states are watching Israel’s response in a fearful rather than (admiring) way.”

Caroline Rose, director of the Strategic Blind Spots Portfolio at the Washington think-tank New Lines Institute, said the expansion in Israel’s war plan for the Gaza Strip “signals Netanyahu’s imperative to continue the conflict as a mechanism of political survival, despite the strain on Israel’s economy, IDF personnel and reserves, and reduced chances for a hostage agreement.”

She told Arab News: “It’s likely also that Netanyahu and his cabinet are seeking to expand operations as a negotiation tool with the US and its regional counterparts, particularly following disappointment with the US for exploring negotiation opportunities with Iran over their nuclear program.”

But “by design, this war plan will have serious implications for the civilian population of Gaza, as there are very few places left for them to go. It is a direct reflection of Netanyahu’s broader objective not only to eradicate Hamas, but also to seriously fragment the Palestinian cause and identity.”

In the past, said Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli lawyer whose NGO, Terrestrial Jerusalem, tracks developments in the city that threaten to spark violence or create humanitarian crises, “ethnic cleansing would have been unthinkable. But today the unthinkable has become thinkable and is unfolding in Gaza.” 

The Israeli government is “willing hostage to the messianic right” and is led by “a prime minister who will not only do anything to remain in power but is also a genuine believer in a world governed by war and brute force.”

More and more Israelis, he added, “are using the terms ‘genocide,’ ‘war crimes’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’ in decrying our actions in Gaza. Retired generals and former heads of the intelligence community are prominent among them.”

However, he said, “this trend is not visible in the partisan politics of the Knesset. With the exception of the Arab members, they remain spineless.”
 

 


Syrian leader discusses regional affairs with Bahrain’s king

Updated 19 min 25 sec ago
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Syrian leader discusses regional affairs with Bahrain’s king

  • Al-Sharaa’s leadership has been improving ties with Arab and Western countries

BEIRUT: The president of the Syrian Arab Republic flew to Bahrain on Saturday where he discussed mutual relations and regional affairs with King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa on his latest trip abroad since taking office in January.

Al-Sharaa’s leadership has been improving ties with Arab and Western countriesSyria’s state news agency, SANA, said President Ahmad Al-Sharaa was heading a high-ranking delegation to Bahrain.

Bahrain’s news agency said the two leaders discussed mutual relations and ways of boosting them, as well as regional affairs and ways of backing Syria’s security and stability.

Al-Sharaa’s visit to Bahrain comes days before US President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit the region for talks with leaders of Gulf Arab nations.

Since taking office, Al-Sharaa has visited Arab and regional countries including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Turkiye. 

Earlier this week, he made his first trip to Europe where he met French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris and announced that his country is having indirect talks with Israel.

After Assad’s fall, Syria and its neighbors have been calling for the lifting of Western sanctions that were imposed on Assad during the early months of the country’s conflict that broke out in March 2011.

The lifting of sanctions would open the way for the Gulf countries to take part in funding Syria’s reconstruction from the destruction caused by the conflict that has killed nearly half a million people.

The UN in 2017 estimated that it would cost at least $250 billion to rebuild Syria. Some experts now say that number could reach at least $400 billion.

In April, Saudi Arabia and Qatar said they will pay Syria’s outstanding debt to the World Bank, a move likely to make the international institution resume its support to the war-torn country.

Since the fall of Assad, a close ally of Iran, Syria’s new leadership has been improving the country’s relations with Arab and Western countries.


Situation in Gaza ‘unbearable,’ Berlin says

Updated 18 min 16 sec ago
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Situation in Gaza ‘unbearable,’ Berlin says

BERLIN: Germany’s new top diplomat Johann Wadephul called on Saturday for “serious discussions for a ceasefire” in Gaza, where the humanitarian situation “is now unbearable.”

Ahead of a visit to Israel, Wadephul said it was “imperative to start” talks “to free all hostages and to ensure that supplies reach the population of Gaza,” according to comments reported by his ministry.

While reaffirming Germany’s unwavering support for Israel, the official said he would “inquire about the strategic objective of the fighting that has intensified since March.”

In Israel, Wadephul is expected to meet his counterpart Gideon Saar and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.

On Tuesday, Chancellor Friedrich Merz voiced “considerable concern” about the Gaza conflict and demanded that Israel “respect its humanitarian obligations.”

“In the West Bank as well, Palestinians need political and economic future prospects so that hatred and extremism no longer find fertile grounds,” Wadephul said. His visit comes at a time when Israel and Germany are preparing to celebrate 60 years of joint diplomatic relations.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog is expected in Berlin on Monday, while his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier will visit Israel on Tuesday. 


Hamas releases video of two Israeli hostages alive in Gaza

Updated 10 May 2025
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Hamas releases video of two Israeli hostages alive in Gaza

  • Israeli media identified the pair in the undated video as Elkana Bohbot and Yosef Haim Ohana
  • The three-minute video released by Hamas shows one of the hostages visibly weak

JERUSALEM: Hamas’s armed wing released a video on Saturday showing two Israeli hostages alive in the Gaza Strip, with one of the two men calling to end the 19-month-long war.

Israeli media identified the pair in the undated video as Elkana Bohbot and Yosef Haim Ohana, who were kidnapped during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war.

The three-minute video released by Hamas’s Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades shows one of the hostages, identified by media as 36-year-old Bohbot, visibly weak and lying on the floor wrapped in a blanket.


Bohbot, a Colombian-Israeli, was seen bound and injured in the face in video footage from the day of the Hamas attack. After a video of him was released last month, his family said they were “extremely concerned” about his health.

The second hostage, said to be Ohana, 24, speaks in Hebrew in the video, urging the Israeli government to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of all remaining captives — a similar message to statements made by other hostages, likely under duress, in previous videos released by Hamas.

Bohbot and Ohana, both abducted by Palestinian militants from the site of a music festival, are among 58 hostages held in Gaza since the 2023 attack, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Hamas also holds the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in a 2014 war.

Israel resumed its military offensive across the Gaza Strip on March 18, after a two-month truce that saw the release of dozens of hostages.

Since the ceasefire collapsed, Hamas has released several videos of hostages, including of the two appearing in Saturday’s video.

Israel says the renewed offensive aims to force Hamas to free the remaining captives, although critics charge that it puts them in mortal danger.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Saturday that at least 2,701 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign in Gaza, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,810.


Qataris search for bodies of Americans killed by Daesh in Syria

Updated 10 May 2025
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Qataris search for bodies of Americans killed by Daesh in Syria

  • Search mission discussed in Qatari trip to US, source says
  • Daesh beheaded a number of Western hostages
  • Qatari mission begins before Trump visit to Doha

A Qatari mission has begun searching for the remains of US hostages killed by Daesh in Syria a decade ago, two sources briefed on the mission said, reviving a longstanding effort to recover their bodies.
Daesh, which controlled swathes of Syria and Iraq at the peak of its power from 2014-2017, beheaded numerous people in captivity, including Western hostages, and released videos of the killings.
Qatar’s international search and rescue group began the search on Wednesday, accompanied by several Americans, the sources said. The group, deployed by Doha to earthquake zones in Morocco and Turkiye in recent years, had so far found the remains of three bodies, the sources said.
One of the sources — a Syrian security source — said the remains had yet to be identified. The second source said it was unclear how long the mission would last.
The US State Department had no immediate comment.
The Qatari mission gets under way as US President Donald Trump prepares to visit Doha and other Gulf Arab allies next week and as Syria’s ruling Islamists, close allies of Qatar, seek relief from US sanctions.
The Syrian source said the mission’s initial focus was on looking for the body of aid worker Peter Kassig, who was beheaded by Daesh in 2014 in Dabiq in northern Syria. The second source said Kassig’s remains were among those they hoped to find.
US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff were among other Western hostages killed by Daesh. Their deaths were confirmed in 2014.
US aid worker Kayla Mueller was also killed in Daesh captivity. She was raped repeatedly by Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi before her death, US officials have said. Her death was confirmed in 2015.
“We’re grateful for anyone taking on this task and risking their lives in some circumstances to try and find the bodies of Jim and the other hostages,” said Diane Foley, James Foley’s mother. “We thank all those involved in this effort.”
The families of the other hostages, contacted via the Committee to Protect Journalists, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The extremists were eventually driven out of their self-declared caliphate by a US-led coalition and other forces.

APRIL VISIT
Plans for the Qatari mission were discussed during a visit to Washington in April by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and the Minister of State for the foreign ministry, Mohammed Al Khulaifi — a trip also designed to prepare for Trump’s visit to Qatar, one of the sources said.
Another person familiar with the issue said there had been a longstanding commitment by successive US administrations to find the remains of the murdered Americans, and that there had been multiple previous “efforts with US government officials on the ground in Syria to search very specific areas.”
The person did not elaborate. But the US has had hundreds of troops deployed in northeastern Syria that have continued pursuing the remnants of Daesh.
The person said the remains of Kassig, Sotloff and Foley were most likely in the same general area, and that Dabiq had been one of Daesh’s “centerpieces” — a reference to its propaganda value as a place named in an Islamic prophecy.
Mueller’s case differed in that she was in Baghdadi’s custody, the person said.
Two Daesh members, both former British citizens who were part of a cell that beheaded American hostages, are serving life prison sentences in the United States.
Syrian interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who seized power from Bashar Assad in December, battled Daesh when he was the commander of another jihadist faction — the Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front — during the Syrian war.
Sharaa severed ties to Al-Qaeda in 2016.