From Gaza to Ukraine and beyond, 2024 was the year of wars

As the year draws to a close, Israel’s violent assaults on Palestinians persist across Gaza as well as the occupied West Bank. Meanwhile, there are no signs of a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, leaving their prolonged conflict unresolved.

In Gaza and the occupied West Bank, the bloodshed has reached unprecedented levels. Over 35,000 Palestinians were killed in 2024, marking the deadliest year since the Israeli invasion and Zionist aggression began in 1948. Ukraine, too, has endured its bloodiest chapter, with 67,000 deaths recorded on both sides of the conflict.

In Lebanon, a fragile 60-day ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel has held since late November. However, nearly 4,000 Lebanese have already been killed this year, and the Netanyahu government has repeatedly violated the truce with targeted strikes under different pretexts.

Syria experienced a surprising turn of events in late November, with an unexpected opposition offensive abruptly toppling the Assad regime after 11 days of an intense campaign. Since then, the country has largely remained uncharacteristically calm despite its long history of Baathist repression.

Overall, 2024 marked a bloody year, with 233,000 people killed, an increase of 30 percent compared to the previous year, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) project. Fatal acts of violence have doubled since 2019, leaving one in eight people exposed to conflict. Among these, Palestinians endured “the highest level of violence”, according to ACLED.

Here is a summary of the year’s developments in four major conflicts: Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine and Syria.

Gaza onslaught

The year 2024 stands as the most harrowing chapter in the history of Palestinian suffering, surpassing a century of Zionist repression and massacres.

Amid the relentless violence, there is a glimmer of hope for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel as negotiators from both sides convene in Qatar.

Last week, Israel Katz, the Israeli defence minister, described the current stage of talks as “the closest we’ve been to a hostage deal since the last deal”, referencing the November 2023 agreement that secured the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Despite these developments, analysts remain sceptical that Israel’s occupation of Gaza will end. A recent New York Times report revealed that Israel has constructed 19 military bases across the Mediterranean enclave. Furthermore, Israeli forces have established a military build-up in central Gaza, effectively dividing the northern and southern regions.

Kamel Hawwash, a Palestinian professor, writer and political analyst, views Israel’s expanding military footprint as a sign of “prolonged” occupation. “Israel will stay wherever it wants because who's going to push it out of any part of Gaza,” Hawwash tells TRT World, referring to the US and Western support to Tel Aviv.

Shortly after October 7, Israeli leaders suggested intentions to expel Palestinians entirely from Gaza. While Hawwash is hesitant to call the ongoing operation an attempt at the total elimination of Palestinians from Gaza, he asserts that Israel has “quickly realised that with the support from the US and the UK, they had that they could do anything.”

Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed more than 45,000 Palestinians including 14,500 youngsters, wounding more than 106,000. “Virtually all 1.1 million children in Gaza are in urgent need of protection and mental health support,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell, in a social media post.

Ukraine war

2024 has also marked a brutal year for Russia-Ukraine hostilities. While Russian forces have had an upper hand over Kiev, making substantial gains and marching across eastern Ukrainian territories, Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government also initiated an unexpected counteroffensive, occupying parts of the Kursk region in Russia proper, in response to intensified attacks from Moscow.

According to the Russian Defence Ministry, in 2024, Moscow had captured a total of almost 4,500 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory, advancing at a rate of 30 square kilometres per day. Most recently, Russia has approached the strategic city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, solidifying its grip on key areas.

But last week, a dramatic development unfolded in Moscow when an explosion near the Kremlin killed a top Russian general, Igor Kirillov, who led the military’s radiological, chemical and biological department. Ukraine claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to Sergei Markov, a Russian political scientist and a former advisor to Vladimir Putin, Kirillov was targeted by not only Ukraine but also Americans due to the Russian general’s campaign against US chemical and biological activities in Ukrainian territory. “It was American revenge against him,” Markov tells TRT World.

In 2022, during a speech, Kirillov described Pentagon’s Ukraine activities as part of “a front for illegal military and biological research”, accusing US Democratic Party members of funding bioweapons activities in Ukraine. “I would like to refer to one of the key Pentagon contractors receiving money from Hunter Biden’s investment fund, Metabiota,” he said.

Ukraine, in turn, accused Kirillov of deploying chemical munitions against its population.

2024 also marked an important Ukrainian cross-border operation against Russia’s Kursk region, marking what the Wall Street Journal described as “the first foreign invasion of Russian territory since World War II”. This operation aimed to demonstrate Kiev’s resilience and its need for continued Western military support despite Russian advances in eastern Ukraine.

Kursk, historically significant as the site of the largest armoured battle during WWII between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, became a symbolic battlefield once again in 2024. The operation was a clear message from the Zelenskyy government to NATO countries: Ukraine remains capable of fighting back and deserving of increased arms supplies.

Israeli war on Lebanon

This year Israeli aggression extended beyond Gaza to Lebanon, a neighbouring state that has endured decades of invasions and cross-border attacks by Tel Aviv.

Israel’s campaign on Lebanon began in September with pagers and walkie-talkies explosions, a covert tactic that killed scores of people and wounded thousands. Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted that Israel was behind the deadly attacks.

Then, Israeli aerial attacks on Lebanon were launched, killing Hezbollah’s top commanders and senior political figures. In late September, the group’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike, alongside Hashem Safieddine, a top Hezbollah figure, who was expected to replace Nasrallah, in early October.

In October, Israeli ground forces also entered Lebanon as a first since the 2006 military engagement between Hezbollah and Tel Aviv, marking the Zionist state’s sixth occupation of the small Mediterranean state. The Israeli occupation and strikes killed thousands of Lebanese, wounding more than 16,000 people.

On November 27, Hezbollah and Israel reached a ceasefire deal as both sides declared victory for their own reasons. However, the fragile truce has been marred by more than 200 violations by Israeli forces, according to Lebanese authorities.

End of Assad regime

Despite all kinds of bloodshed across the year, 2024 has also marked the end of Syria’s Baathist autocracy, led by Bashar al-Assad. The regime’s grip on power maintained through brutality and repression, led to the deaths of more than 500,000 people displacing nearly half of the country’s population during Syria’s brutal 13-year civil war.

While armed anti-regime groups were not able to claim victory against the Assad regime, backed by Russia and Iran, during the long civil war, which was triggered by the Arab Spring in 2011, they never surrendered. Instead, they retreated to Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, holding out against the regime’s onslaught.

In late November, armed anti-regime groups led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched a lightning offensive, which quickly marched across northern Syria, capturing Aleppo, the country’s largest city with an ancient history. Then, they moved toward Hama, a stronghold of anti-Baath sentiments, which has witnessed oppression since the 1960s at the hands of the ruling Assad family.

The swift capture of both Aleppo and Hama – cities that had eluded opposition control throughout the civil war – signalled the imminent collapse of the Assad regime.

On December 8, anti-regime groups entered Damascus, Syria’s ancient capital, without encountering resistance. The regime’s army vanished, and Bashar al-Assad, along with his family, fled to Moscow.

In the aftermath of the regime’s collapse, the anti-regime groups formed a transitional government led by Mohammed al Bashir, the new prime minister, and Ahmed al Sharaa, the HTS leader. So far, they have overseen a largely peaceful transfer of power, bringing a sense of hope to a war-torn nation.

“This is a message to all the oppressed and revolutionaries around the world: Truth will prevail and the people will prevail despite all the injustice and bloodshed,” says Omar Alhariri, a Daraa-based Syrian journalist. “Do not lose hope,” he tells TRT World.

While the bloody Syria conflict has reached a relatively peaceful end, other conflicts around the world with a very high human toll have continued with no signs of a solution at sight.

In Sudan, a 20-month civil war between the military and a paramilitary force has created the world’s largest displacement crisis and a widening famine, driving 30 percent of the country’s population out of their homes, besides killing more than 24,000 people.

The junta-led Myanmar has also seen its conflict between the military rule and anti-government forces escalate this year even as the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against the country’s top military leader.