Israel declares war, goes after Hamas fighters and bombards Gaza

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Updated 09 October 2023
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Israel declares war, goes after Hamas fighters and bombards Gaza

  • The toll passed 1,100 dead — 700 in Israel and 400 in Gaza — and thousands wounded on both sides.
  • As many as 1,000 Hamas fighters were involved in Saturday morning’s assault, says US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
  • Hamas and Islamic Jihad group claimed to have taken captive more than 130 people from inside Israel and brought them into Gaza

JERUSALEM: The Israeli government formally declared war Sunday and gave the green light for “significant military steps” to retaliate against Hamas for its surprise attack, as the military tried to crush fighters still in southern towns and intensified its bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The toll passed 1,100 dead and thousands wounded on both sides.

In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities as far as 24 kilometers from the Gaza border, while Hamas launched thousands of rockets at Israeli cities.

More than 24 hours after Hamas launched its unprecedented incursion out of Gaza, Israeli forces were still battling with militants holed up in several locations. At least 700 people have reportedly been killed in Israel — a staggering toll on a scale the country has not experienced in decades — and more than 400 have been killed in Gaza.

The declaration of war portended greater fighting ahead, and a major question was whether Israel would launch a ground assault into Gaza, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties.

Meanwhile, Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group claimed to have taken captive more than 130 people from inside Israel and brought them into Gaza, saying they would be traded for the release of thousands of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. The announcement, though unconfirmed, was the first sign of the scope of abductions.

The captives are known to include soldiers and civilians, including women, children and elderly — mostly Israelis but also some other nationalities. The Israeli military said only that the number of captives is “significant.”

As many as 1,000 Hamas fighters were involved in Saturday morning’s assault, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking on ABC’s “This Week.” The high figure underscored the extent of planning by the militant group ruling Gaza, which has said it launched the attack in response to mounting Palestinian suffering under Israel’s occupation and blockade of Gaza.

The gunmen rampaged for hours, gunning down civilians and snatching people in towns, along highways and at a techno music festival attended by thousands in the desert near Gaza. The rescue service Zaka said it removed about 260 bodies from the festival, and that number was expected to rise. It was not clear how many bodies were already included in Israel’s toll.

In response, Israel hit more than 800 targets in Gaza so far, its military said, including airstrikes that leveled much of the town of Beit Hanoun in the enclave’s northeast corner.

Israeli Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters Hamas was using the town as a staging ground for attacks. There was no immediate word on casualties, and most of the community’s population of tens of thousands of people likely fled before the bombardment.

“We will continue to attack in this way, with this force, continuously, on all gathering (places) and routes” used by Hamas, Hagari said.

Civilians on both sides were already paying a high price. The Israeli military was evacuating at least five towns close to Gaza.

A line of Israelis snaked outside a central Israel police station to supply DNA samples and other means that could help identify missing family members.

Mayyan Zin, a divorced mother of two, said she learned that her two daughters had been abducted when a relative sent her photos from a Telegram group showing them sitting on mattresses in captivity. She then found online videos of a chilling scene in her ex-husband’s home in the town of Nahal Oz: Gunmen who had broken in speak to him, his leg bleeding, in the living room near the two terrified, weeping daughters, Dafna, 15, and Ella, 8. Another video showed the father being taken across the border into Gaza.

“Just bring my daughters home and to their family. All the people,” Zin said.

In Gaza, the tiny enclave of 2.3 million people sealed off by an Israeli-Egyptian blockade for 16 years since the Hamas takeover, residents feared an intensified onslaught. Israeli strikes flattened some residential buildings.

Nasser Abu Quta said 19 members of his family including his wife were killed when an airstrike hit their home, where they were huddling on the ground floor in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

There were no militants in his building, he insisted. “This is a safe house, with children and women,” the 57-year-old Abu Quta said by telephone. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the strike.

Some 74,000 displaced Gazans were staying in 64 shelters. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said a school sheltering more than 225 people took a direct hit. It did not say where the fire came from.

Several Israeli media outlets, citing rescue service officials, said at least 700 people have been killed in Israel, including 44 soldiers. The Gaza Health Ministry said 413 people, including 78 children and 41 women, were killed in the territory. Some 2,000 people have been wounded on each side. An Israeli official said security forces have killed 400 militants and captured dozens more.

Elsewhere, six Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers Sunday around the West Bank.

In northern Israel, a brief exchange of strikes with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group fanned fears that the fighting could expand into a wider regional war. Hezbollah fired rockets and shells Sunday at Israeli positions in a disputed area along the border, and the Israeli military fired back using armed drones. The Israeli military said the situation was calm after the exchange.

The declaration of war on Hamas announced by Israel’s Security Cabinet was largely symbolic, said Yohanan Plesner, the head of the Israel Democracy Institute, a local think tank. But it “demonstrates that the government thinks we are entering a more lengthy, intense and significant period of war.”

Israel has carried out major military campaigns over the past four decades in Lebanon and Gaza that it portrayed as wars, but without a formal declaration.

The Security Cabinet also approved “significant military steps.” The steps were not defined, but the declaration appears to give the military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a wide mandate.

Speaking on national television Saturday, Netanyahu vowed that Hamas “will pay an unprecedented price.” He further warned: “This war will take time. It will be difficult.”

“Get out of there now,” he told Gaza residents, who have no way to leave the tiny, overcrowded Mediterranean territory.

Overnight, the Israeli military issued warnings in Arabic to communities near the border with Israel to leave their homes for areas deeper inside the tiny enclave.

Gazans have endured a border blockade, enforced to varying degrees by Israel and Egypt, since Hamas militants seized control in 2007.

In a statement, his office said the aim will be the destruction of Hamas’ “military and governing capabilities” to an extent that prevents it from threatening Israelis “for many years.”

Israelis were still reeling from the breadth, ferocity and surprise of the Hamas assault. The group’s fighters broke through Israel’s security fence surrounding the Gaza Strip early Saturday. Using motorcycles and pickup trucks, even paragliders and speedboats on the coast, they moved into nearby Israeli communities — as many as 22 locations.

The high death toll and slow response to the onslaught pointed to a major intelligence failure and undermined the long-held perception that Israel has eyes and ears everywhere in the small, densely populated territory it has controlled for decades.

The presence of hostages in Gaza complicates Israel’s response. Israel has a history of making heavily lopsided exchanges to bring captive Israelis home.

An Egyptian official said Israel sought help from Cairo to ensure the safety of the hostages. Egypt also spoke with both sides about a potential cease-fire, but Israel was not open to a truce “at this stage,” according to the official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to brief media.

The shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, said the assault, named “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm,” was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, the Israeli occupation and a series of recent incidents that have brought Israeli-Palestinian tensions to a fever pitch.

Over the past year, Israel’s far-right government has ramped up settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds of Palestinians there, and tensions have flared around the Al-Aqsa mosque, a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.




Israelis inspect a destroyed building a day after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Tel Aviv, Israel on Oct. 8, 2023. (AP)

Previous conflicts between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers brought widespread death and destruction in Gaza and days of rocket fire on Israeli towns. The situation is potentially more volatile now, with Israel’s far-right government stung by the security breach and with Palestinians in despair over a never-ending occupation in the West Bank and suffocating blockade of Gaza.

On Sunday, militants fired more rockets from Gaza, hitting a hospital in the Israeli coastal town of Ashkelon, said senior hospital official Tal Bergman. Video provided by Barzilai Medical Center showed a large hole punched into a wall and chunks of debris scattered on the ground of what appeared to be an empty room and a hallway. The military said patients had been evacuated from Barzilai before the strike.

School was canceled across Israel.

Around 3 a.m., a loudspeaker atop a mosque in Gaza City blared a stark warning to residents of nearby apartment buildings: Evacuate immediately. Just minutes later, an Israeli airstrike reduced one nearby five-storey building to ashes.

After one Israeli strike, a Hamas rocket barrage hit four cities, including Tel Aviv and a nearby suburb. Throughout the day, Hamas fired more than 3,500 rockets, the Israeli military said.

The shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, said the assault was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, and a series of recent incidents that have brought Israeli-Palestinian tensions to a fever pitch.




A digger removes rubble from the police station that was overrun by Hamas militants in Sderot, Israel. (AP)

Over the past year, Israel’s far-right government has ramped up settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds of Palestinians there, and tensions have flared around the Al-Aqsa mosque, a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.

“Enough is enough,” Deif, who does not appear in public, said in the recorded message. He said the attack was only the start of what he called “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” and called on Palestinians from east Jerusalem to northern Israel to join the fight.

The Hamas incursion on Simchat Torah, a normally joyous day when Jews complete the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll, revived painful memories of the 1973 Mideast war practically 50 years to the day, in which Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, aiming to take back Israeli-occupied territories.

Comparisons to one of the most traumatic moments in Israeli history sharpened criticism of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, who had campaigned on more aggressive action against threats from Gaza. Political commentators lambasted the government and military over its failure to anticipate what appeared to be a Hamas attack unseen in its level of planning and coordination.

Asked by reporters how Hamas had managed to catch the army off guard, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli army spokesman, replied, “That’s a good question.”

The abduction of Israeli civilians and soldiers also raised a particularly thorny issue for Israel, which has a history of making heavily lopsided exchanges to bring captive Israelis home. Israel is holding thousands of Palestinians in its prisons. Hecht confirmed that a “substantial” number of Israelis were abducted Saturday.

Associated Press photos showed an elderly Israeli woman being brought into Gaza on a golf cart by Hamas gunmen and another woman squeezed between two fighters on a motorcycle. AP journalists saw four people taken from the kibbutz of Kfar Azza, including two women.

In Gaza, a black jeep pulled to a stop and, when the rear door opened, a young woman stumbled out, bleeding from the head and with her hands tied behind her back. A man waving a gun in the air grabbed her by the hair and pushed her into the vehicle’s back seat.

A major question now was whether Israel will launch a ground assault into Gaza, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties. Netanyahu vowed that Hamas “will pay an unprecedented price.” But, he warned, “This war will take time. It will be difficult.”

Israel’s military was bringing four divisions of troops as well as tanks to the Gaza border, joining 31 battalions already in the area, a spokesperson said.

Hamas said it had planned for a potentially long fight. “We are prepared for all options, including all-out war,” the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Saleh Al-Arouri, told Al-Jazeera TV. “We are ready to do whatever is necessary for the dignity and freedom of our people.”


Netanyahu says Hamas gave body of ‘Gazan woman’ not hostage Shiri Bibas

Updated 14 sec ago
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Netanyahu says Hamas gave body of ‘Gazan woman’ not hostage Shiri Bibas

  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Hamas had handed over the body of a “Gazan woman” the day before and not that of hostage Shiri Bibas as agreed in the truce deal
JERUSALEM:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Hamas had handed over the body of a “Gazan woman” the day before and not that of hostage Shiri Bibas as agreed in the truce deal.
“In an unimaginably cynical manner, they did not return Shiri to her small children, the little angels, and instead placed the body of a Gazan woman in a coffin,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.

Syria’s Christians mark a decade since a horrific Daesh attack and worry about their future

Updated 21 February 2025
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Syria’s Christians mark a decade since a horrific Daesh attack and worry about their future

  • The former Islamist insurgents who now run the country have repeatedly said religious rights will be protected.
  • This month, northeast Syria’s remaining Christians will mark the 10th anniversary of the Daesh attack on over 30 villages along the Khabur river.

TEL TAL: It was a mournful moment for Christians in Syria. A bell that once summoned residents to worship rang out, but the church was no longer there.
The Saint Odisho church was blown up by the Daesh group a decade ago, leaving Tel Tal village almost empty of residents.
A local Christian who fled the attack, Ishaq Nissan, walked the streets and pointed to uninhabited homes, explaining where families had gone: US, Australia, Canada or Europe.
This month, northeast Syria’s remaining Christians will mark the 10th anniversary of the Daesh attack on over 30 villages along the Khabur river. On Feb. 23, 2015, dozens of Christians were killed or wounded and over 200 were taken hostage. Churches were blown up, and thousands of people fled.
The anniversary comes as Christians worry about the future of Syria following the ouster of longtime president Bashar Assad in December by insurgents led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group. HTS leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa is now interim president, and most government members come from Islamic factions.
Al-Sharaa has repeatedly said religious rights will be protected in post-Assad Syria. Though HTS had been an Al-Qaeda affiliate, it is opposed to IS and fought deadly battles with it over the years. IS was defeated in Syria in 2019, but sleeper cells still carry out attacks.
Since Assad’s fall, there have been some attacks by others targeting Christians. In December, a Christmas tree was set on fire in Suqailabiyah village. Authorities called it an isolated incident.
“We hope as Christians that there will be cooperation between all parties of Syria in what gives everyone their rights,” Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Maurice Amsih, who leads the church in the northeast, told The Associated Press.
Amsih said Christians in Syria are opposed to Islamic rule: “We want them to treat us in a civil way.”
Western countries have pressed Syria’s new authorities to guarantee the rights of religious and ethnic minorities, as well as those of women. The vast majority of Syrians are Sunni Muslims, while about a quarter of the population is Christian, Druze or Alawite.
Christians made up about 10 percent of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million, co-existing with the Muslim majority and enjoying freedom of worship under the Assad government. The last parliament speaker under Assad was Christian.
But since civil war began in 2011 with a popular uprising against Assad and a government crackdown, hundreds of thousands of Christians have left the country. The rise of IS, and its attack 10 years ago, helped to drive them out.
“We were living in peace and never expected this dark day to happen in our modern history,” said Elias Antar Elias, a Tel Tal resident who represents the villages of the Khabur river region in the Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria.
The 78-year-old and his family fled in the middle of the night as the extremists stormed one Christian village after another, horrifying the population that had lived in relative peace for decades.
Elias, a retired teacher, fled with his family to the northeastern city of Hassakeh and stayed until Kurdish and Christian fighters regained control of their hometown months later.
“We saw the beheaded bodies of Christians on the side of the road as dogs were eating them,” Elias said, calling it “an image that pains our hearts.”
Elias said Tel Tal had about 400 residents before the IS attack. Today, there are about 30.
At the spot where the Saint Odisho church once stood, Elias recalled its importance: “This is where we baptized our children. This is where I got married.”
Asked why his family didn’t leave for good like many others, he replied: “I’m in love with this place. Our graves and martyrs are here. This is our land.”
The archbishop said 34 Christian villages along the Khabur river were home to 45,000 Assyrians before the 2015 attack.
Amsih said about 2.2 million Christians were in Syria before the civil war, and he estimated that two-thirds of them have left the country.
In nearby Tel Nasri, Christian residents have left and the village is full of displaced people from other regions. The Church of Virgin Mary still stands but is badly damaged after being blown up in 2015.
Some Christians who witnessed the violence say they have no plans to leave Syria, even with uncertainty ahead under new leaders.
Janet Chamoun was praying in a church in Qamishli in 2015 when a car bomb exploded outside, throwing her and her daughter to the floor. Glass shattered and some people were injured.
“Despite the fear we decided to stay,” Chamoun said outside the repaired Virgin Mary Syriac church, where she still comes every day to pray.
“Our home and roots are here,” she said.


Israel says it has struck Lebanon-Syria border crossings used by Hezbollah

Updated 21 February 2025
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Israel says it has struck Lebanon-Syria border crossings used by Hezbollah

  • War monitor SOHR says the strikes put an “illegal crossing” near Lebanon’s frontier town of Wadi Khaled, which borders Syria’s Homs provincel “out of service”
  • The raids came “after a convoy of smugglers’ vehicles was observed headed from Syria toward Lebanon,” added the SOHR, which has a network inside Syria

BEIRUT: Israel said Friday it struck crossings on the Lebanon-Syria border used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons, with a Syria war monitor reporting an unspecified number of people wounded in the attack.
The Israeli military said its air forces “struck crossing points in the area of the Lebanon-Syria border” used by the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group “in attempts to smuggle weapons into Lebanese territory.”
“These activities constitute a blatant violation of the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the statement added.
A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has been in place since November 27, after more than a year of hostilities including two months of all-out war. Both sides have accused the other of violating the deal.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the overnight strikes put an “illegal crossing” near Lebanon’s frontier town of Wadi Khaled, which borders Syria’s Homs province, “out of service” and wounded a number of people.
The raids came “after a convoy of smugglers’ vehicles was observed headed from Syria toward Lebanon,” added the Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of sources inside Syria.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman reported “heavy material damage to buildings and vehicles.”
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported “enemy aircraft flying at low altitude over the city of Hermel” and villages in the Bekaa Valley in the country’s northeast near the Syrian border.
Under the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, Lebanon’s military was to deploy in south Lebanon alongside UN peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period that was later extended to February 18.
Hezbollah was to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle remaining military infrastructure in the south.
Israel announced just before the latest deadline that it would temporarily keep troops in “five strategic points” near the border.
Earlier this month, the Israeli military said it carried out an air strike targeting a tunnel on the Syria-Lebanon border used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons.
In January, Israel carried out air strikes in Lebanon targeting areas in the east and south according to Lebanese state media, with the Israeli military saying it hit Hezbollah targets including smuggling routes along the border with Syria.
Syria shares a 330-kilometer (205-mile) border with Lebanon, with no official demarcation.
Hezbollah lost a supply route when opposition forces in December ousted Bashar Assad in Syria, where Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes since war broke out in 2011.
Hezbollah holds sway in large parts of the Lebanese-Syrian border region, and had fought alongside Assad’s troops during the war.
 


Israeli prime minister tells military to carry out West Bank operation after bus explosions

Updated 21 February 2025
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Israeli prime minister tells military to carry out West Bank operation after bus explosions

  • No casualties were reported

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the military to carry out an “intensive” operation in the West Bank after explosions on buses close to Tel Aviv on Thursday, in what Netanyahu’s office described as an attempted mass attack.
No casualties were reported.
The Israeli police earlier said there had been explosions on three buses in two Israeli suburbs outside Tel Aviv and that four explosive devices had been found. Local media reported the explosions had occurred on buses in depots and were empty.
The explosions were a stark reminder of the devastating bus bombings in Israel that were a hallmark of the Palestinian uprising of the 2000s, although such attacks are now rare.
The military said in a statement that it was assisting the police and Shin Bet intelligence agency in the investigation. The police said it was searching for suspects, advising the public to remain vigilant.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosions. Netanyahu met with the defense minister, head of the military and Shin Bet and the police commissioner following the explosions, his office said. A police spokesperson said that improvised explosive devices with timers had been identified and public transportation had been searched for any further devices.
A video published by local media showed what appeared to be a bus on fire at a depot and a photo of a burned out bus.
The military said it would intensify counter-terrorism operations in the West Bank and that it had blocked entry points in certain areas, without specifying where. The military has been conducting a large scale military operation in the West Bank over the past month that it says is targeting militants.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes in West Bank refugee camps, while homes and infrastructure have been demolished.
The bus blasts come amid a fragile ceasefire in Gaza between the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel after 16 months of war. Hamas on Thursday released the bodies of four hostages.
The ceasefire has held since it was implemented on January 19 despite accusations traded by Israel and Hamas of violations.


UN calls for rapid economic recovery in Syria to reverse losses from 14 years of conflict

A displaced Syrian stands inside her dilapidated apartment, overlooking the destruction in Homs' Khaldiyeh neighborhood. (AFP)
Updated 21 February 2025
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UN calls for rapid economic recovery in Syria to reverse losses from 14 years of conflict

  • UN Development Program says that at current growth rates it will take until 2080 for the country’s economy to return to prewar levels
  • Regional Director Abdallah Al-Dardari tells Arab News Syria’s journey to recovery is arduous, urges countries to understand effects of sanctions and act accordingly

NEW YORK CITY: A newly published report from the UN Development Programme warned that at current growth rates, the Syrian economy will not recover to prewar levels until 2080, leaving the country stuck in a state of prolonged hardship and instability.

It also underscored the urgent need for a rapid economic recovery to help reverse the decades of progress that were lost as a result of the 14-year civil war. The conflict shattered nearly four decades of economic, social and human development, causing irreparable damage to the nation’s infrastructure, economy and social fabric.

The report, titled “The Impact of the Conflict in Syria: A Devastated Economy, Pervasive Poverty, and a Challenging Road Ahead to Social and Economic Recovery,” offers a detailed analysis of the socioeconomic state of the country, and outlines a road map for rebuilding its economy and infrastructure.

According to the UNDP’s preliminary socioeconomic impact assessment, gross domestic product in Syria has halved since the war began in 2011, representing a loss of $800 billion over the past 14 years.

Poverty has reached alarming levels, with the national poverty rate soaring from 33 percent before the war to 90 percent. Extreme poverty has also skyrocketed, with 66 percent of the population now affected, up from just 11 percent prior to the conflict. Three out of four people in the country rely on humanitarian aid and are in urgent need of support for critical aspects of life such as healthcare, education, employment, food security and housing. The country also has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, with one in four Syrians jobless.

Achim Steiner, the administrator of UNDP, said that the requirements for Syria’s recovery extend beyond the immediate need for humanitarian aid.

“Restoring productivity for jobs and poverty relief, revitalizing agriculture for food security, and rebuilding infrastructure for essential services such as healthcare, education and energy are key to a self-sustaining future, prosperity and peace,” he said.

The damage to Syria’s infrastructure, which has left many essential services nonfunctional, is among the primary obstacles to recovery. The report highlights a staggering array of damage: nearly 50 percent of schools are closed, one-in-three housing units have been destroyed, and nearly half of the nation’s water-treatment plants and sewage systems are no longer operational. Energy production has plummeted by 80 percent, with power plants and transmission lines heavily damaged. These failures in basic services exacerbate poverty levels and block any meaningful path toward recovery.

The UNDP report also highlighted the devastating loss of life during the war, and the decline in health infrastructure. Nearly 618,000 Syrians died during the conflict, and 113,000 were forcibly disappeared, their whereabouts still unknown. Meanwhile, the collapse of the healthcare system has exacerbated the crisis; a third of all medical facilities have been damaged and almost half of ambulance services are no longer operational.

The education sector was also hit hard, leaving 40-50 percent of children between the ages of 6 and 15 unable to attend school. The widespread destruction of housing has left 5.7 million people in need of shelter support.

Essential infrastructure, including water-treatment plants, sewer systems and power plants, has been severely damaged, leaving millions without access to clean water, sanitation or reliable energy supplies.

Syria’s position on the Human Development Index has plummeted to its lowest point since 1990, further illustrating the catastrophic effects of the war on the nation’s development.

The economic outlook remains grim but hope can be found in the potential for robust growth if the correct strategies are implemented, the UNDP said. Its report calls for an ambitious approach to development, as growth rates will need to increase sixfold if they are to recover within a decade.

At the current rate of annual growth, 1.3 percent, it would take more than 50 years to restore GDP to prewar levels. To recover within 15 years, Syria would need to achieve a growth rate of 5 percent, and a tenfold increase in growth would be required for the country to reach the level of development it could have attained in the absence of the war.

Abdallah Al-Dardari, UNDP’s assistant administrator and director of its regional bureau for Arab states, stressed the important need for comprehensive reforms, and said: “Syria’s future hinges on a robust development-recovery approach.

“This demands a comprehensive strategy addressing governance reform, economic stabilization, sector revitalization, infrastructure rebuilding, and strengthened social services.”

He told Arab News that this strategy for recovery will rely on investments and on good management of those investments, as he underscored the institutional requirements Syria will need to meet to attract private investment in infrastructure.

“If you want to invest $100million or $200 million in (a) highway, you need to first of all be sure that you can go to the court, and the court will treat you equally if you have a litigation with your counterpart, which is the government,” Al-Dardari said.

“You need to make sure that there are internationally recognized arbitration systems. You need to make sure that your money can come in and leave the country. You need to make sure that your banking system respects the highest standards of banking.

“I can give you a very long list of things that need to be done and are not there yet. So this is an arduous journey. This is not an easy journey.”

Al-Dardari also told Arab News about the effects of international sanctions, imposed on the Assad regime during the war, on the economy and the ways in which they are hampering recovery progress.

“I'll give you an example,” he said. “Who is going to bring those investments of $36 billion while they are not really sure that the banking sector is free to bring in money, to use the SWIFT (banking system) to transfer funds and to invest?

“How do you make sure that your shipments into Syria of raw materials or semi-manufactured products are protected? How do you make sure that your exports from Syria can arrive at their destinations, and money will be paid for those exports?

“So at every step of the way in recovery, sanctions will play a role. The chilling effect of sanctions, what we call the ‘overload lines,’ will accompany those sanctions. So our core message (to countries) here is: Please understand the impact of sanctions and act accordingly.”