Syria’s Damascus, Syria – In 2024, the long-running Assad regime’s fall became a global turning point.
In the final month of the year, many in Syria’s war had lost all interest, but a lightning strike brought it back to light and overthrew Bashar al-Assad.
More than 65 percent of the population, according to the World Health Organization’s estimate, needed humanitarian assistance at the beginning of 2024.
The crisis had been exacerbated even further by an earthquake that devastated northern Syria in February 2023, without requiring further international support.
Food prices had doubled in 2024 compared with 2023, and the local currency had devalued to one-15th of its 2020 value.
Israel attacked Syria in 2024, destroying entire buildings in Damascus and other provinces, targeting high-ranking Iranian and Hezbollah officials, and causing repeated shutdowns of Aleppo and Damascus airports.
In the south and northwest of the country, peaceful demonstrations continued, with Sweida activists calling for the end of the Assad regime.
Al-Assad’s regime and its allies continued to bombard opposition-held areas, killing and injuring civilians.
On November 27, armed opposition groups, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched “Operation Deterring Aggression,” making quick advances in western Aleppo and capturing the city in less than two days as a result of the regime’s continued threat to the northwest.
The advance continued through southern Idlib, Hama, Deraa, and Homs until, on December 8, it reached Damascus as Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia.
Despite Israel profiting from the situation to bomb security establishments and weapon depots and launch an incursion into Syria by crossing the Golan Heights boundary line, celebrations erupted across Syria.
As the HTS fighters advanced, they threw open the doors to al-Assad’s prisons, setting thousands free and underlining the sheer number of people who have disappeared in his “human slaughterhouses”.
Efforts began to locate some 130, 000 prisoners and forcibly disappeared persons, but as thousands of families found out, the search will be long and gruelling.
Many more internally displaced people who were forced to flee the country hoped to return to their homes, but some people were unable to identify where their homes had been due to al-Assad’s destruction.
Syrians are still frugal and afraid of the future, but there is consensus that the future holds promise in comparison to the past.
Syrians make the transition from 1970 to 2025 as they leave behind the al-Assad era as the world changes.
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