Cities and towns in western Syria witnessed a general strike that encompassed various aspects of life, with residents remaining in their homes, in response to the call of the head of the Supreme Alawite Islamic Council in Syria and the diaspora, Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal, who announced a five-day general strike for the Alawite community, starting from December 8, 2025, until the twelfth of the same month.
The announcement coincided with calls for celebration launched by the interim authority, “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham,” on the occasion of the day of the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and its assumption of power on December 8, 2025. Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal said in a recorded statement: “They want to celebrate by force, replacing an unjust regime with one that is even more unjust.”
Ghazal Ghazal added: “Despite their continuous attempts to distort our course, fragment our unity, and falsify facts in an effort to break us using the most horrific methods—arrest, killing, slaughter, kidnapping, and burning—here they are today threatening people’s livelihoods, with dismissal, transfer, oppression, and intimidation, to coerce us into participating in celebrations built on our blood and our pain, with the aim of silencing our voices.”
The cities of Latakia, Tartus, Jableh, and Safita, along with neighborhoods in Homs and villages and towns in the Hama countryside, witnessed a wide strike, as shown in the following images:
