The family of the young man Hazem Najdat Kanaan, 22 years old, who belongs to the Alawite community in the city of Jableh in Latakia Governorate in western Syria, reported that contact with him was lost on the afternoon of Tuesday, December 2, 2025, while he was on his way to visit a friend in the Al-Saliba neighborhood inside the city. Since then, his family has not found any trace of him despite searching police stations and hospitals.
According to the family’s statement, the first hours of Hazem’s disappearance saw an intensive search without receiving any official information regarding the circumstances of his abduction or the party responsible for it. The family affirms that the young man had no known problems that might explain the reason for his abduction.
On December 4, 2025, his sister, Ola Najdat Kanaan, issued an appeal in a video clip in which she called for help in revealing her brother’s fate and securing his release.
This incident comes within a general context witnessing an increase in cases of disappearance and undeclared detention in several areas of the Syrian coast, amid the inability of families to obtain official information clarifying the fate of the missing or the parties responsible for these violations.
