Syrian president attends Arab League meeting after years of isolation

Idlib, 2020: Two sons mourn the death of their mother. Photographer Ghaith Alsayed himself was only 17 when the war began. His brother was also killed in an explosion. He said: “When I took this picture, all the horror of my brother being killed came back to me, and suddenly I cried too.”

Binish, April 2020. A woman holds her daughter by the hand. In Mohannad Zayat’s photographs, they are tiny creatures in the desert of ruins. They are trying to find shelter in a destroyed school. It’s a dangerous refuge, but better than nothing. There are no vacant tents in the nearby camp for displaced persons.

Aleppo, June 2013: A water main was destroyed in an attack. The boy immediately drank from the full crater. Photographer Muzzafar Salman: “At that time, some people said that the photo was not real. They also said that I should give the children clean water. But I think that if you want to change the reality, you must first show the reality.”

In March 2018, fleeing from the ancient tower, a man packed his child in a suitcase and went to the exit leading to the road to freedom. Photographer Omar Sanadiki wrote: “After all, the war in Syria has not only changed the country. It has changed us too – how we see people, how we take pictures to send a humanitarian message to the world.”

Damascus suburbs, 2017: Umm Mohammed and her husband sit in their destroyed house – as if nothing happened. Photographer Sameer Al-Doumy said: “This woman was one of the most impressive people I have ever met. She was seriously injured and, shortly after, her husband was also seriously injured. She stayed at home to take care of him. To me, her resilience reflects who Syrians really are.”

In 2017, Daraa area. Eid al-Fitr this year is nothing to celebrate. Photographer Mohamad Abazeed recounts: “In 2017, I accompanied this woman to visit her son’s grave on the first day of Eid al-Fitr. I cried myself, but I wiped my tears so that I can still take pictures.”

December 2013, Damascus. Five-year-old Aya waits in a wheelchair for her father to cook for her. On the way to school, a shell hit her. “I was wearing brown shoes that day. First I saw the shoes fly through the air, and then I saw my legs fly with it,” she told The Guardian.

The town of Kafr Nouran near Aleppo. Syrian track and field athletes have turned the ruins into a daring acrobatic training ground. Anas Alkharboutli’s photos show that extreme sports and stunts can be practiced even in concrete ruins.

In 2020, after a ceasefire was signed, the family returned to their home in southern Idlib. Ali Haj Suleiman had mixed feelings when he took this photo: “I am happy that these people have returned to their hometowns. At the same time, I am sad because I am also displaced – I cannot go back.”

This is also Syria at war: the ancient Roman amphitheater of Bosra in Daraa was soaked by a torrential rain in 2018. (Note: All photos in this gallery were provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, but the accuracy of information from third parties cannot be guaranteed. Cooperation with them does not imply that the United Nations was involved in the photography.)