Abu Sleiman, a Palestinian fighter in HTS, returned to Yarmouk after eight years. (Credit: Caroline Hayek/L'Orient-Le Jour)
Abu Ahmad had sworn not to drink a drop of water until he set foot in Yarmouk. In 2018, he was forced to flee the Palestinian camp — a triangular, two-square-kilometer city recaptured by the Assad regime after years of bombings and siege.He was 20 years old at the time. Another camp, Der Ballout in Aleppo province, awaited him.“For five years, we trained almost daily — it drained us,” he recalled. When he arrived in Damascus with his battalion last Saturday, he said he finally “understood the value of all the sacrifice.”He recounted the collapse of government forces, the capture of Aleppo, then Hama and, finally, their lightning advance to the gates of the capital. “Just like that,” he said, snapping his fingers, his eyes misty.“All those years away from home, we didn’t talk about wanting Palestine. All that mattered to us was Yarmouk.”...
Abu Ahmad had sworn not to drink a drop of water until he set foot in Yarmouk. In 2018, he was forced to flee the Palestinian camp — a triangular, two-square-kilometer city recaptured by the Assad regime after years of bombings and siege.He was 20 years old at the time. Another camp, Der Ballout in Aleppo province, awaited him.“For five years, we trained almost daily — it drained us,” he recalled. When he arrived in Damascus with his battalion last Saturday, he said he finally “understood the value of all the sacrifice.”He recounted the collapse of government forces, the capture of Aleppo, then Hama and, finally, their lightning advance to the gates of the capital. “Just like that,” he said, snapping his fingers, his eyes misty.“All those years away from home, we didn’t talk about wanting Palestine. All that mattered...
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