Nazih Osseiran

When Bashar al-Assad was forced out of power by rebels in Syria, Jude Khouja and his Syrian friends in the U.S. felt they had to do something to help rebuild a country dear to them after decades of brutal rule and conflict.

They spent the days after Assad's overthrow in December talking on WhatsApp about their options under the new Islamist rulers who said they want to establish a free market economy and open Syria for foreign investment.

Every day, children in the West Bank run the gauntlet of Israeli roadblocks, checkpoints and settler attacks on their way to school.

Since Israel launched a major operation in the West Bank in January, the trip has become even more perilous. Thousands of troops are sweeping through refugee camps and cities and demolishing houses and infrastructure, including roads children use to get to school.

Children have returned to school in Gaza, taking classes in tents or in the rubble of schools where families sheltered during the war, but trauma, aid blockades and the threat of more fighting could derail their drive to learn.

At least 14,500 children were killed in the war and thousands wounded, according to UNICEF. More than 400 teachers were also killed, the U.N. says, and now most of Gaza's children need mental health support for trauma, aid agencies say.

The Human Rights Watch researcher for Saudi Arabia said U.N. organisers of a major internet summit in Riyadh threatened to eject her from the event for mentioning a jailed Saudi teacher and later censored a video containing criticism of the kingdom.

More than 9,000 participants from 170 countries took part in the United Nations' Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in the Saudi capital in December to discuss "policies for a safe, inclusive and innovative digital future," according to the U.N.

When a ceasefire began in Gaza last month, Palestinian activist Ahmad Kilani hoped the pause in fighting would also bring a return to peace in his hometown of Yabad in the occupied West Bank.

But his joy turned to fear when, just two days later on Jan. 21, large columns of Israeli army vehicles backed by helicopters and drones stormed the nearby Jenin refugee camp at the start of a major crackdown in the West Bank.

Former allies and self-declared enemies of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad are flooding the country's digital space with disinformation aimed at destabilising the fragile new order by sparking sectarian strife, analysts say.

During Syria's civil war, opposing forces weaponised cyberspace to try to influence the conflict. Now there are fears online disinformation is derailing the transition of power after Sunni Islamist rebels defeated Assad in December.

As bombs rained down and entire neighbourhoods around her were pulverised, Shayma Abualatta found the only way to cope with the trauma of Gaza's 15-month-long war was to make sure she did all she could to get an education.

Now the 21-year-old, who is studying computer science and computer engineering, wants to use what she learned to help rebuild a land where the most basic lifelines have been severed and where everyone needs everything.

Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza after Hamas-led Palestinian militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and seizing around 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Behind his desk in a bright marble-floored shop in the heart of the Syrian capital, Saeed has a stack of envelopes he used to stuff with cash whenever a government official stopped by.

Now the former president, Bashar al-Assad, has been overthrown, Saeed hopes he will have no more use for them.

More than 45,000 Palestinians killed, half of whom were women and children. Some 10,000 bodies buried under 40 million tonnes of rubble. More than 95,000 people injured in a land where half of all hospitals have been damaged or destroyed.

Beyond the broken bodies and obliterated buildings, another chilling statistic: 96% of children feel their death is imminent, and almost half want to die, according to a study released this month.