Damascus, Syria – The fall of the long Assad regime that ruled Syria for more than 50 years became a global turning point in 2024.
Syria’s war had faded from the headlines, but it resurfaced after a lightning offensive toppled Bashar al-Assad and restored hope for many in the final month of the year.
In early 2024, the World Health Organization estimated that more than 65 percent of the population needed humanitarian assistance.
An earthquake in February 2023 that devastated northern Syria had further exacerbated the crisis without prompting additional international support.
Food prices had doubled in 2024 compared to 2023 and the local currency had depreciated to a 15th of its 2020 value.
Israel attacked Syria in 2024, destroying entire buildings in Damascus and other provinces, targeting senior Iranian and Hezbollah officials, and causing repeated closures of Aleppo and Damascus airports.
Peaceful protests continued in the south and northwest of the country, with activists in Sweida protesting poor living conditions and calling for the fall of the Assad regime.
Al-Assad’s regime and its allies continued to bombard opposition-held areas, killing and injuring civilians.
The continuing threat from the regime in the northwest led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and a coalition of armed opposition groups to launch “Operation Prevent Aggression” on November 27, making rapid advances in western Aleppo and capturing the city within two days.
The advance continued through southern Idlib, Hama, Deraa and Homs until, on December 8, it reached Damascus as Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia.
Celebrations erupted across Syria, despite Israel taking advantage of the situation to strike security sites and weapons depots and launch an incursion into Syria by creeping across the border into the Golan Heights.
As HTS fighters advanced, they opened the doors of al-Assad’s prisons, freeing thousands of people and highlighting the vast number of people who have disappeared in his “human slaughterhouses”.
Efforts have begun to locate some 130,000 prisoners and forcibly disappeared people, but as thousands of families have learned, the search will be long and exhausting.
Thousands more internally displaced people who had to leave the country hoped to return to their homes, but the destruction caused by al-Assad was so extensive that some people could not even identify where their homes were .
Uncertainty and fear about the future remain widespread among Syrians, but there is a consensus that the future holds promise compared to the past.
As the world moves from one year to another, Syrians move from 1970 to 2025 as they leave the Assad years behind.
