Relentless bombing and ‘constant death’: A bleak start to 2024 for Syria

Al Jazeera :
Shaher Masri and his family heard bombs near their home shortly after noon prayers on the first day of the new year.
The Syrian regime and its Russian allies had allowed no pause for the holidays, this time bombing a bakery a few metres from the house Masri, 29, his wife and four children have been living in for the past four years in the village of Jakid al-Adas, near Darat Izza in northwestern Syria.
I’ve never seen something more horrible. When we ventured out we found a man who had died while buying bread and breakfast for his family,” Masri told Al Jazeera.
That afternoon, artillery hit the town repeatedly, frightening civilians and damaging buildings, including a bakery, a mosque, a market and an electricity facility.
The attack was part of a general assault on the villages of Darat Izza, Kabashin and Burj Haidar in the countryside west of Aleppo, which killed six people and injured 11 more, including four children, a baby and two women.
It followed the bombing of the city of Idlib the previous day and Israeli air raids on the Aleppo and Neirab airports, as well as several points belonging to the Syrian regime south of Aleppo, on Saturday.
Nada al-Rashed, a director of the Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets), told Al Jazeera Syrians had welcomed the new year with the same motif they had bid the last one farewell: “with bloodshed”.
Masri and his family, who are originally from Jakid al-Adas in the Aleppo governorate, have already been displaced several times within northwestern Syria. They will not move again, despite the repeated bombing of Darat Izza – there is little point they say.
But Masri remains hopeful. “We hope to get rid of [Syrian president] Assad in our new year,” he said.