DAMASCUS: More than 528,500 people were killed in the Syrian civil war, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said on Wednesday.
The overall toll includes thousands killed since 2011 that were only confirmed dead recently, with access to detention centers and mass graves easier following the overthrow of Bashar Assad.
The Britain-based monitory said 6,777 people, more than half of them civilians, were killed in 2024 in fighting in Syria.
AFP was unable to independently verify these figures.
Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011 after the government brutally repressed pro-democracy protests triggering a devastating conflict that pushed millions to flee abroad and drew in foreign powers.
Last year, 3,598 civilians, including 240 women and 337 children were killed across Syria, according to the Observatory.
In addition, 3,179 combatants were killed, the monitor said, including soldiers from “the old regime,” but also “Islamist armed groups” and extremists.
In 2023, the Observatory reported 4,360 people killed, including nearly 1,900 civilians.
In December, militants overthrew Assad, seizing power in a rapid offensive that ended more than 50 years of the family’s iron-fisted rule.
Since 2011, the monitor with a network of sources inside Syria has recorded more than 64,000 deaths in Assad’s prisons “due to torture, medical negligence or poor conditions” in the jails.
Syrian civil war killed more than 528,500: monitor
https://arab.news/yqjz5
Syrian civil war killed more than 528,500: monitor
- Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 6,777 people, more than half of them civilians, were killed in 2024
- The overall toll includes thousands killed since 2011 that were only confirmed dead recently
Senior Hamas figure among 7 killed in Israeli airstrike
- Pair of Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza's Deir Al-Balah, killing a Hamas commander
- Boy, aged 16, among the dead
CAIRO: A senior figure in the armed wing of Hamas was among seven people killed on Thursday in a pair of Israeli airstrikes in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, a Hamas source said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the incident. The Hamas source said one of the dead was Mohammed Al-Holy, a local commander in the group’s armed wing in Deir Al-Balah.
Hamas condemned the strikes on the Al-Holy family, in a statement that did not mention Mohammed or his role in the group. It accused Israel of violating the ceasefire deal in place since October, and attempting to reignite the conflict.
Health officials said the six other dead in the incident included a 16-year-old.
Israel and Hamas have traded blame for violations of the ceasefire and remain far apart from each other on key issues, despite the United States announcing the start of the agreement’s second phase on Wednesday.
More than 400 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers have been reported killed since the ceasefire took effect in October.
Israel has razed buildings and ordered residents out of more than half of Gaza where its troops remain. Nearly all of the territory’s more than 2 million people now live in makeshift homes or damaged buildings in a sliver of territory where Israeli troops have withdrawn and Hamas has reasserted control.
The United Nations children’s agency said on Tuesday that over 100 children have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire, including victims of drone and quadcopter attacks.
Israel launched its operations in Gaza in the wake of an attack by Hamas-led fighters in October 2023 which killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s assault has killed 71,000 people, according to health authorities in the strip, and left much of Gaza in ruins.
