内容摘要：Gold Mafia, a four-part series by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (

Gold Mafia, a four-part series by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (

Unable to afford rebuilding, Shamtan decided approximately two months ago to leave the camp with his family and young grandchildren, and has begun planting wheat on his land.Al-Hawash had been under al-Assad’s control and bordered front lines with neighbouring Idlib province, which became a stronghold for opposition groups, particularly Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the opposition fighters that spearheaded the offensive that toppled the former president.

“We cannot stay in the camps,” Shamtan maintained, even though “the village is all destroyed … and life is non-existent,” lacking fundamental services and infrastructure.“We decided … to live here until things improve. We are waiting for organisations and the state to help us,” he added. “Life is tough.”Local official Abdel Ghafour al-Khatib, 72, has also returned after escaping in 2019 with his wife and children to a camp near the border.

“I just wanted to get home. I was overjoyed … I returned and pitched a worn-out tent. Living in my village is the important thing,” he stated.“Everyone wants to return,” he noted. However, many cannot afford transportation in a country where 90 percent of the population lives in poverty.

“There is nothing here – no schools, no health clinics, no water and no electricity,” al-Khatib said while sitting on the ground in his tent near what remains of his home.

The conflict, which erupted in 2011 following al-Assad’s brutal suppression of antigovernment protests, killed more than 500,000 people and displaced half of Syria’s pre-war population either internally or abroad, with many seeking refuge in Idlib province.Yandex.Market, where Zoya bought her Apple Watch, lists hundreds of iPhones being sold by numerous registered retailers, some of whom promise to deliver orders in as little as two hours.

Zoya bought her watch from a company called IDstore, which offers a wide variety of Apple goods, including computers, smartphones, watches and cables, for sale.IDstore was registered in November 2022 and has a single employee, according to Rusprofile, a website that aggregates data from official registries.

On WhatsApp, an IDstore representative told Al Jazeera that the company delivers goods to Russia from India, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Europe, but declined to elaborate further.Restore: did not reply to emailed requests for comment.