Hundreds of residents from Christian neighborhoods in Damascus took to the streets in protest after a video circulated on social media showing militants setting fire to a Christmas tree in the city of Suqaylabiyah, located near Hama, where the majority of the population is Christian.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the militants were foreigners from the Islamist group "Ansar al-Tawhid."
The religious leader of the Islamist group "Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham," which led the rebels in toppling Bashar al-Assad's regime, released a video statement claiming that those who burned the tree "are not Syrians," and promised to punish them and restore the Christmas decorations for the holiday.