Syria and Palestine are two countries that have been hit by deadly wars over the last 15-80 years. For Syria in the spring of 2011 the Arab Spring Protests, and the uprising of Bashar al-Assad started the Syrian Civil War that has bloomed so much today.

But for Gaza and Palestine, it dates back to 1947 following World War II when the UN partition plan recommended dividing Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. This led to the war of the Israeli-Arab conflict in 1948. In this decade, these countries are still fighting their way out of occupation by their tyrant or another government.

Since October 7th of 2023, when the terrorist organization Hamas, who claim to represent the Palestinian people, attacked an Israeli music festival, killing 1,195 Israeli civillians, it’s been an all-out war on Hamas. By declaring war on Hamas, Israel was also declaring war on the Gaza Strip where Palestinians live. From October 2023 to January 19th, 46,600 Palestinians, including about 13,000 children perished in the conflict by the IDF’s air and ground operations,(according to Reuters). AP News has reported that at least 69% of Gaza’s structures have been damaged or destroyed. Then Hamas and Israel agreed to a ceasefire which began on January 19. 

For Palestinians, it’s going to be a while before they fully recover from the havoc brought upon them by the Israeli government. With the ceasefire, Israel promised to re-open the Rafah border between Egypt and Gaza, something Israel occupied since May of 2024 during the war. On March 15th, according to the Middle East Eye, it was reported that an Israeli strike that killed 9 people hit a town in northern Gaza. This prompted a response from a Hamas spokesperson saying: “The [Israeli] occupation has committed a horrific massacre in the northern Gaza Strip by targeting a group of journalists and humanitarian workers, in a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement.” 

After Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House to meet with the new President Donald Trump about the issues regarding the conflict, the President made remarks on X (formerly known as Twitter) about turning Gaza into a resort-filled place with gold Trump Statues, as seen in an A.I. video he posted. It was met with uproar, with people commenting, “GAZA IS NOT FOR SALE.” The future of Palestine and Gaza is still uncertain. The US and Israel are still trying to find countries to take in these hundreds of thousands of people, even with having a cease-fire.

For Syria, since the overthrowing of Bashar al-Assad, Israel started a slight ground operation into the buffer zone between Israel and Syria attacking chemical weapon facilities held by Assad’s regime. Between the threat of Israel at their doorstep, they are also dealing with a humanitarian crisis, with 16.5 million people in need of assistance. The fighting between SDF-led Kurdish forces and SNA (Syrian National Army)  militants has left 1.3 million northern Syrians displaced, but it has slowed down since January. The HTS ((Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham) is the group that took over the capital of Syria, leading to Assad leaving for Russia for asylum. This group is controversial in the eyes of many Western countries due to its previous ties with Al-Qaeda, making HTS considered a terrorist organization. The HTS now controls the biggest section of Syria with also the most power and control with them establishing a new Provisional government. The fall of Assad brought many displaced Syrian refugees back with this new hope of a stable government. The interim government has called for all other armed groups to disarm and be one army, with the fighting in the northeast against the SNA. Even with the internal conflict, Syria is now fighting with Lebanon’s Hezbollah forces after the Syrian Government reported that Hezbollah killed 3 men. In response, Syria struck Lebanon which has further escalated tensions. Recently on March 17th, the UN pledged $6.5 billion to Syria to rebuild the infrastructure after the civil war, and to help transition to a new government.

These two countries have a long way ahead when it comes to rebuilding their people’s lives, but they all have the world’s support with fundraisers and social media. The millions of people who have had to endure these atrocities are the reason these countries will rebuild and continue on