Damascus, Syria – The autumn of the longstanding Assad regime that dominated Syria for greater than 50 years turned a world turning level in 2024.
Syria’s battle had light from the headlines but it surely resurfaced as a lightning offensive overthrew Bashar al-Assad and restored hope to many within the final month of the yr.
At the beginning of 2024, the World Well being Group estimated that greater than 65 % of the inhabitants required humanitarian help.
An earthquake in February 2023 that devastated northern Syria had additional exacerbated the disaster with out spurring extra worldwide help.
Meals costs had doubled in 2024 in contrast with 2023, and the native foreign money had devalued to one-Fifteenth of its 2020 worth.
Israel attacked Syria in 2024, destroying complete buildings in Damascus and different provinces, concentrating on high-ranking Iranian and Hezbollah officers, and inflicting repeated shutdowns of Aleppo and Damascus airports.
Peaceable protests continued within the south and northwest of the nation, with activists in Sweida protesting in opposition to poor residing circumstances and calling for the autumn of the Assad regime.
Al-Assad’s regime and its allies continued to bombard opposition-held areas, killing and injuring civilians.
The persevering with menace from the regime within the northwest prompted Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and a coalition of armed opposition teams to launch “Operation Deterring Aggression” on November 27, making speedy advances in western Aleppo and capturing town inside two days.
The advance continued by way of southern Idlib, Hama, Deraa, and Homs till, on December 8, it reached Damascus as Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia.
Celebrations erupted throughout Syria, regardless of Israel making the most of the state of affairs to strike safety websites and weapon depots and launch an incursion into Syria by creeping throughout the boundary line within the Golan Heights.
Because the HTS fighters superior, they threw open the doorways to al-Assad’s prisons, setting 1000’s free and underlining the sheer quantity of people that have disappeared in his “human slaughterhouses”.
Efforts started to find some 130,000 prisoners and forcibly disappeared individuals, however as 1000’s of households came upon, the search will be long and gruelling.
Hundreds extra internally displaced individuals who needed to flee the nation hoped to return to their houses, however the destruction al-Assad wrought was so intensive that some folks could not even identify the place their houses had stood.
Uncertainty and concern of the longer term stay prevalent amongst Syrians, however there’s a consensus that the longer term holds promise in contrast with the previous.
Because the world transitions from one yr to the subsequent, Syrians transition from 1970 to 2025 as they put the al-Assad years behind them.
