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A blue graphic with a megaphone illustration reads: Syria Direct will be taking a break from publishing for the remainder of July.

We thank our readers and look forward to bringing you new in-depth reporting in August.

🧵 Harried by government security campaigns, IS appears unable to regain territorial control in Syria, instead working to maintain visibility through limited operations while betting on the failure of the country’s transition. 🔗 bit.ly/4gRJeRD

A member of Syria’s security services looks over ammunition and explosives seized during an operation by the country’s Ministry of Interior and General Intelligence Service to arrest an Islamic State (IS) leader, 20/6/2026 (Syrian Ministry of Interior)

🧵 Driven by high property prices, Daraa residents are building homes beyond the planned boundaries of cities and towns, creating new neighborhoods without basic infrastructure and presenting already overstretched municipalities with a dilemma. 🔗 bit.ly/4wdHg2w

An aerial view of neighborhoods in Nawa, a city in the western countryside of Syria’s southern Daraa province, 10/6/2026. A long, straight road stretches into the distance, first passing through clusters of square houses and then through brown, green and yellow fields.

🧵 The living and the dead are coming home to Afrin as displaced families return with the remains of their loved ones, fulfilling a long-held wish to lay them to rest in their native soil. 🔗 bit.ly/43PAlR7

A convoy of dozens of vehicles loaded with the belongings of families returning to the Afrin area of Syria’s northwestern Aleppo province after years of displacement in the country’s northeast, 10/6/2026.

🧵 Israeli incursions and violations are making life increasingly untenable in southern Syrian border villages, as residents curtail their movements, suspend reconstruction and investment, and consider leaving if they have alternatives. 🔗 bit.ly/4eBKnKx

Israeli soldiers stand in front of an armored vehicle in Dawaya al-Saghira, a village in Syria’s southwestern Quneitra province, 25/12/2024

🧵 The Revolutionary Youth Movement and Syrian Democratic Forces continue to recruit minors in northeastern Syria, despite past commitments and an integration agreement with Damascus. 🔗 bit.ly/4vgzGEa

A former Revolutionary Youth (Ciwanên Şoreşger) center in Qamishli, a city in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province, 29/4/2026. YPG banners and the flag of Rojava can be seen on and near the building.

🧵 As Syria charts a new course and transitional justice efforts proceed, advocates see a unique opportunity to reform the country’s nationality law and address statelessness. 🔗 bit.ly/4xmgTbZ

A group of women sit around round tables as they attend a conference in Damascus organized by Syria’s National Commission for Transitional Justice, alongside UN Women and the MENA Statelessness Network (Hawiati), to discuss reform of the country’s nationality law, 30/3/2026 (Natacha Danon/Syria Direct)

🧵 Caught between a seemingly absent Syrian government and a growing Israeli presence, Mount Hermon’s Druze villages are waiting for a clarity neither Damascus nor Tel Aviv seems willing to provide. 🔗 bit.ly/4x8mDG7

Mount Hermon, on the Syrian-Lebanese border, overlooks an unmanned checkpoint at the entrance of the Reef Dimashq village of Beqaasem. Graffiti painted on the small building reads: “Don’t forget the blood of your people,” 7/5/2026 (Hicham El Bouhmidi/Collectif DR/Syria Direct)

📣 SYRIA DIRECT IS HIRING! (Deadline extended) Syria Direct’s recruitment process for the positions of Arabic Editor and Arabic Reporter has been extended to June 15, 2026. Learn more and apply: bit.ly/4wnW6Ev

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🧵 Soil salinization is a complex and expanding crisis in rural Raqqa, where fields are becoming unusable and farmers have limited means to respond. 🔗 bit.ly/4vbkckr

🧵 Following Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s reshuffle of governors and ministers, questions have emerged over whether the appointments reflect growing public discontent or signal a preference for trust and security control over participation and competence. 🔗 bit.ly/4nuOSdX

A group of men in suits sit around a long wooden table, looking towards a screen at the edge of the picture. Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa (his back to the camera) sits at the head of the table as he presides over a meeting with a group of ministers and governors, 19/2/2026 (Presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic)

📣 SYRIA DIRECT IS HIRING! We are currently recruiting for the following positions: - Social Media & Multimedia Coordinator - Finance & Admin Expert - Programs Manager - English Editor - Arabic Editor - Arabic Reporter Deadline to apply is May 24th. For more details: bit.ly/4wnW6Ev

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🧵 As the trial of former Assad regime security official Atef Najib moves forward, some lawyers and human rights experts warn that it may be premature in the absence of a legal framework for transitional justice. 🔗 bit.ly/4eGIIFi

The Syrian flag (green, white and black horizontal stripes with three red stars in the center) waves above Damascus’ Palace of Justice (a white stone building), where the trial of former regime security official Atef Najib is being held, 10/5/2026 (Natacha Danon/Syria Direct)

🧵 Despite progress in talks between Suwayda education officials and Damascus to secure recognition of upcoming baccalaureate exams, students are wary of a repeat of last year, when thousands were left with unrecognized certificates amid an ongoing rift with the government. 🔗 bit.ly/4w1oR9L

Students and their families demonstrate in downtown Suwayda city, demanding recognition of their secondary education certificates. One man’s sign reads (in Arabic): “Honorable people of this country: our children’s future is a responsibility that rests on your shoulders,” 23/4/2026 (Al Haqiqa News)

🧵 As Syrian Jews and their allies in the diaspora work to reestablish ties and revive Syria’s ancient Jewish heritage, politics bubble beneath the surface. One thorny question—whether and how Israel fits into the picture—has opened a divide. 🔗 bit.ly/3QyAXas

Henry Hamra, a Brooklyn-based cantor and son of Rabbi Yousef Hamra—the last rabbi to leave Damascus in the 1990s—visits the al-Faranj Synagogue in Old Damascus, 18/2/2025. Hamra looks up and into the distance, standing in front of a stone wall with ornate decorations and a Star of David.

The first public trial of Assad regime officials began in Damascus on Sunday. Atef Najib, Daraa’s political security chief in 2011, appeared in court. Bashar and Maher al-Assad will be tried in absentia. Read our 2025 profile of Najib: syriadirect.org/who-is-atef-...

syriadirect.org

🧵 A proposal to rebuild destroyed neighborhoods in eastern Damascus through private investment and partial compensation for property owners has angered and alarmed residents who consider it “theft” and disguised expropriation. 🔗 bit.ly/4cUYBX9

Syrians from Jobar, a neighborhood on the eastern edge of Damascus, gather to break their Ramadan fast amid the ruins of buildings destroyed by Assad regime bombardment, 11/3/2026. In a picture taken from above, two parallel rows of long tables fill a street illuminated by strings of white lights and flanked by bombed-out buildings and piles of gray rubble.

🧵 As stateless Syrian Kurds begin applying for citizenship under a recent presidential decree, hopes of restoring long-denied rights are tempered by bureaucratic hurdles and past disappointments. 🔗 bit.ly/4edlvtT

Assem Abdullah Hamou, 51, a stateless Syrian Kurd, holds documents he brought to support his application for citizenship as he waits outside the municipal stadium in the Hasakah city of Qamishli, 6/4/2026. Hamou has short gray hair and is wearing a dark coart and sweater as he looks down at sheets of paper in his hands.

🧵 Under pressure and death threats, a number of journalists and activists have fled Suwayda in recent months as the space for free expression narrows in the Druze-majority southern province. 🔗 bit.ly/4sb9w3A

Syrians gather to protest the humanitarian situation in Suwayda city, as the Druze-majority southern province suffered shortages of basic supplies following deadly violence in July 2025, 28/7/2025. A crowd of men and women stand holding signs and raising the Druze flag.

🧵 Germany kept a report used to justify post-Assad deportations to Syria confidential for nearly a year before quietly releasing it last week. It appears to contain inaccuracies. 🔗 bit.ly/4v1WfwA

The cupola of Germany’s Bundestag is seen behind a sign indicating the way to an emergency exit on the sidelines of a debate focusing on immigration, 31/1/2025 (Tobias Schwarz/AFP)

🧵 While not a direct target of the escalating conflict between Israel, the US, Iran and Hezbollah, southern Syria is feeling its fallout—from drone debris to increased patrols by occupying forces. 🔗 bit.ly/3PgzoNG

A brick traffic median in Quneitra’s al-Salam city shows impact damage from fragments of an Iranian drone intercepted by Israeli air defenses, 15/3/2026.

🧵 On the second anniversary of the Syrian revolution since the fall of the Assad regime, have its earliest aims—freedom, justice, dignity and the rule of law—been achieved, or is the journey far from over? 🔗 bit.ly/4sYuNOJ

Syrians marking the 15th anniversary of the revolution march are greeted by members of the new government’s security forces at the site in Daraa city where Assad regime security forces fired upon protesters in 2011, 18/3/2026 (Daraa Media Center)

In the distance, a crowd of demonstrators, some waving the green and black flag of the Syrian revolution, walk down a road that winds along the side of a hill, covered in lush green plants. In the foreground, a row of Syrian security forces have their backs to the camera, facing the approaching crowd. Some have flowers tucked into their uniforms or shields. The scene is an intentional inversion of the violence that took place at the same spot 15 years earlier.

🧵 After months of deadlock, a prisoner swap between Damascus and Suwayda opened a “new” negotiating channel, but is there a way forward amid internal divisions and struggles over representation? 🔗 bit.ly/4sq9Ax9

Sheikh Laith al-Balous, wearing a white turban, stands with Syrian government figures during a prisoner exchange between the Damascus government and Suwayda’s National Guard, 26/2/2026

🧵 As Alawites mark one year since the massacres in Syria’s coastal regions, residents of Baniyas say fear persists, wounds remain unhealed and political demands unmet. 🔗bit.ly/4sF1wbC

Mourners gather at the Sheikh Hilal Cemetery in the Tartous city of Baniyas, to mark the anniversary of March 2025 mass killings in Alawite communities in Syria’s coastal regions, 7/3/2026. A group of women, children and men stand amid stone graves covered with greenery and flowers. A row of trees are in the distance, and dark clouds are in the sky.

🧵 An inaccessible public transportation system and degraded infrastructure pose daily challenges to disabled Syrians, isolating them and preventing their freedom of movement in an “unspoken form of social exclusion.” 🔗 bit.ly/4bjYl1X

A group of women and men wait for a bus or servees (microbus) on the side of a street in Damascus. All have their backs turned to the camera as they look down the street, where a bus and a van are driving past. A row of apartment buildings can be seen stretching into the distance on the other side of the street.

🧵 Israeli aircraft sprayed large areas of Syria’s southern Quneitra province with herbicides at least three times in late January, killing crops, devastating farmers and damaging trees. 🔗 bit.ly/4l9ZKN9

Plants and grasses growing around olive trees west of the Quneitra countryside village of Kudna are yellowed and dying after the area was sprayed with herbicides by Israeli aircraft, 4/2/2026

🧵 Even as Syria suffers an acute water crisis, thousands of cubic meters of groundwater are flowing into the global market in the form of olive oil, an export that represents both national pride and a silent depletion of resources. 🔗 bit.ly/4sbh7zi

Olive trees on Abdullatif Boubki’s land in the Idlib countryside city of Salqin, northwestern Syria. It is a cloudy day, and rows of olive trees can be seen growing from reddish earth. Water has collected in a number of ruts in the ground.