PM tells mom of missing US journalist Israel won’t strike part of Syria he may be in
Debra Tice, whose son Austin was abducted during the early days of the Syrian civil war, appeals to Netanyahu to ensure no harm comes to him amid strikes on Assad’s military assets
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reassured the mother of a missing American journalist in Syria that Israel will ensure it does not take any action that risks harming her son after she appealed to him to halt any Israeli strikes in a particular neighborhood of Damascus where he is credibly believed to be held.
In a letter sent over the weekend which has since been made public, Debra Tice told Netanyahu that she had received “credible information” regarding the whereabouts of her son Austin Tice, a former US Marine and freelance journalist, who was abducted from Darayya, Syria in 2012 after he traveled to the region to report on the early days of the civil war.
Tice has become the focus of a massive manhunt following the ouster of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad earlier this month, 13 years after the start of the civil war. Rebels, led by the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, have since released thousands of people from prisons in Damascus where Assad held political opponents, ordinary civilians and foreigners.
But as thousands of Syrians have been reunited with their loved ones, Tice’s family are still awaiting news, believing him to be alive.
To that end, Tice’s mother Debra told the prime minister of her concern that the intensive strikes Israel has been carrying out on military sites across Syria to prevent the regime’s assets from falling into the wrong hands could inadvertently harm her son.
“We have credible information… that Austin may now be held in a prison called Mt. Qasioun prison. This prison has a secret tunnel which connects the Al-Maliki neighborhood to the Republic Palace. The prison is located underneath a military museum,” she wrote.
“We are aware that your military has an active campaign in the area, preventing rescuers from approaching and accessing the prison facility. We have no way of knowing if the prisoners there have food and water,” she wrote.
“We urgently request you pause strikes on this area and deploy Israeli assets to search for Austin Tice and other prisoners,” she added. “Time is of the essence. We are calling on you to leverage all your relationships and resources to liberate that prison.”
Netanyahu’s hostage envoy Gal Hirsch confirmed receipt of the letter to The New York Times on Tuesday, and said Israel was in touch with the US on the matter.
“We will do everything possible in assisting the United States of America to bring the hostages and missing persons back home,” Hirsch told the newspaper.
Netanyahu, in a letter published by journalist Barak Ravid on Wednesday, sought to reassure Tice that Israel was being careful to avoid striking areas where her son may be held.
????????????Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised the mother of U.S. journalist Austin Tice that the IDF isn't conducting airstrikes in areas in Syria where he might be located. My story on @axios https://t.co/Hzopew9lIW pic.twitter.com/zkMxsx5gY5
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) December 18, 2024
“Please rest assured that Israel and its intelligence agencies are fully coordinated with the relevant American authorities on the matter and that the IDF is not active in the areas where Austin may be located,” he wrote,
He did not respond to Debra’s request for Israeli assistance on the ground, and the IDF does not have troops in Syrian beyond a buffer area on the border.
Israeli forces are only deployed in the buffer zone along the border to secure it as a temporary defensive measure, and Israel has said it does not seek to intervene in the events in Syria.
Netanyahu added that he hoped Debra is able to find “a measure of comfort in that knowledge that your son’s courage and dedication as a journalist have not gone unnoticed.”
“His commitment to the truth and to shining a light on the war in Syria have inspired so many people.”
Following the abrupt end of the Assad family’s 50-year rule on December 8, US President Joe Biden said that the US government believes Tice is alive, but acknowledged that it had “no direct evidence” of his status.
Tice, who is from Houston, has had his work published by The Washington Post, McClatchy newspapers and other outlets.
A video released weeks after Tice’s 2012 disappearance showed him blindfolded, hands tied behind his back. He was led up a hill by armed men in what appeared to be Afghan garb and shouting “God is great” in an apparent bid to blame Islamist rebels for his capture although the video only gained attention when it was posted on a Facebook page associated with Assad supporters.
Tice could be heard reciting a prayer, in Arabic, before saying in English: “Oh Jesus, oh Jesus.”
He has not been heard from since.
US officials familiar with the matter told Reuters last week, however, that Tice had managed to slip out of his prison cell in the early days of 2013, and briefly roamed the streets of Damascus’s upscale Mazzeh neighborhood before he was recaptured.
While the Syrian regime denied that it was holding Tice, US officials have said that his escape from prison is the strongest evidence that he was held by a group loyal to Assad.
One person with knowledge of his 2013 escape said Tice was potentially passed back and forth between several different government intelligence agencies in the following years.
In the wake of Assad’s fall, the US has been in touch with the Syrian rebel group that ousted him, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed last week that the matter of Tice’s whereabouts had been raised.
“We have impressed upon everyone we’ve been in contact with the importance of helping find Austin Tice and bringing him home,” Blinken said.
