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
Israeli destruction of Gaza continues despite ceasefire
- At least 2,500 buildings demolished, NYT reports, using satellite imagery
- It’s not selective destruction, it’s everything,’ says former Israeli commander
LONDON: Israel continues to destroy buildings and infrastructure in Gaza despite signing a ceasefire agreement more than two months ago, the New York Times reported.
At least 2,500 buildings have been demolished. While much of the destruction has taken place in Israeli-occupied Gaza, the NYT, using satellite imagery obtained from Planet Labs, showed that numerous buildings had been demolished in territory ostensibly controlled by Hamas, despite the terms of the ceasefire including an Israeli pledge to cease operations there.
A UN report last year found that as much as 80 percent of Gaza’s buildings were either damaged or destroyed during the nearly two-year conflict that ravaged the enclave, with most of its population displaced.
Gaza-based political analyst Mohammed Al-Astal told the NYT: “Israel is wiping entire areas off the map.”
He added: “The Israeli military is destroying everything in front of it — homes, schools, factories and streets. There’s no security justification for what it’s doing.”
A former Israeli military official called the activity “absolute destruction.” Shaul Arieli, a former commander who served in Gaza in the 1990s, added: “It’s not selective destruction, it’s everything.”
A Hamas official based in Qatar said Israel’s actions violate the ceasefire. “The agreement isn’t vague, it’s clear,” Husam Badran told the NYT. “Destroying people’s homes and property isn’t allowed. They’re hostile actions.”
