War-displaced Syrians in Lebanon face a difficult dilemma as specter of a new conflict looms

Displaced by civil war, Syrians must now endure escalating violence in southern Lebanon or risk returning home. (Getty Images)
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Updated 03 September 2024
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War-displaced Syrians in Lebanon face a difficult dilemma as specter of a new conflict looms

  • Escalating hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel are deepening the plight of displaced Syrians, already living in extreme poverty
  • Refugees must now choose between onward migration, returning to an unsafe homeland, or remaining in a potential conflict zone

LONDON: Out of the frying pan and into the fire, Syrian refugees in Lebanon, who have found little respite since the war erupted in their home country in 2011, are now caught in the crossfire between Hezbollah and the Israeli military as the region braces for a potential all-out war.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, at least 31 Syrians, including two women and eight children, have been killed in Lebanon since Oct. 8, when Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia began trading fire along the Lebanese border.




Damaged buildings following an Israeli strike in the Dahiyeh suburb in Beirut on August 9, 2024. (Getty Images) 

“The irony of escaping death in Homs (in Syria) only to face it here sometimes makes me laugh,” Nour, a pharmacist who fled to Beirut with her brother and daughter in 2013, told Arab News.

“Now, not only do we have to endure the unbearable living conditions and discrimination by the authorities, but we also have to live in fear of bombs falling from above.”

Syrian refugees in Lebanon now face a cruel dilemma whether to stay and risk deportation to Syria, where conflict and persecution continue, embarking on a perilous sea journey to Europe, or risk remaining in an impoverished nation on the cusp of war.

“Tragically, we have already witnessed the loss of lives among refugees in southern Lebanon, underscoring the grave dangers they face daily,” Tania Baban, the Lebanon country director of the US-based charity MedGlobal, told Arab News.




Syrian refugees working near Lebanon’s border with Israel wait to be evacuated to a safe location, on October 13, 2023. (AFP)

On Aug. 17, an Israeli airstrike on Wadi Al-Kafour in southern Lebanon killed 10 Syrian civilians and damaged residential buildings, the AFP news agency reported. The Israeli army claimed it hit a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in the Lebanese city of Nabatieh.

Baban said the armed exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah “have plunged Syrian refugees into an even more dire situation, leaving them with impossible choices.

“As the prospect of a full-scale Middle Eastern conflict looms, these refugees find themselves trapped in a perilous dilemma,” she said.

“They must choose between remaining in Lebanon and risk becoming collateral damage in an intensifying conflict, or returning to Syria, where safety is still a distant hope and not an option for most.”




Children sit by as a woman washes dishes in a plastic basin outside a tent at a makeshift camp for Syrian refugees in Talhayat in the Akkar district in north Lebanon on October 26, 2022. (AFP)

Tensions reached boiling point in recent weeks after a senior Hezbollah commander, Fouad Shokr, was killed in Beirut in late July in a suspected Israeli airstrike.

On Aug. 25, Israel carried out a “pre-emptive” wave of airstrikes across southern Lebanon as Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets and drones at Israel, marking the start of the militia’s retaliation for its slain commander.

Combined with Iran’s pledge to avenge the death of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in another suspected Israeli airstrike in Tehran on July 31, a regional war involving Israel, Iran, and several of Iran’s militia proxies, seems more likely than ever.




A Syrian refugee woman living with others in makeshift tents in south Lebanon, hugs her child after an Israeli air strike targeted the outskirt of town of Burj Al-Muluk , some 18kms from the town of Nabatiyeh on July 20, 2024. (AFP)

Although the low-level conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has been largely confined to the Israel-Lebanon border area, with southern Lebanese villages suffering the worst of the damage, Baban of MedGlobal says the escalation “is not just a localized issue.

“It’s affecting many parts of the country, with devastating effects on both Syrian refugees and Lebanese internally displaced persons, as well as other vulnerable Lebanese communities,” she said.

IN NUMBERS

  • 1.5m Syrian refugees living in Lebanon, including 815,000 registered with UNHCR.
  • 9/10 Refugee households in Lebanon who are living in extreme poverty.

With Lebanon’s economy in crisis and with insufficient means to help both Syrians and displaced Lebanese, “the potential for conflict between these groups grows, threatening to further destabilize an already fragile nation,” she added.

As Lebanon braces for the possibility of all-out war, MedGlobal is collaborating with the Lebanese Ministry of Health to establish a command and control center to coordinate and streamline response efforts across the country.

“This center is vital in ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently and that the most urgent medical needs are met with precision and speed,” she said.

MedGlobal’s efforts are currently concentrated in the West Bekaa region, “where we are providing critical medical care through a primary health care center.

“This facility is a lifeline, delivering essential health services to Syrian refugees, vulnerable Lebanese communities, and, most recently, families displaced from the southern border.”

Although many rights groups consider Syria too unsafe for the repatriation of refugees, there are areas of the country where fighting has long since ceased that could offer security not just for Syrian returnees but also for many Lebanese displaced by Israeli attacks.

Indeed, the intensifying exchanges have prompted some Lebanese families displaced from southern towns and villages to consider seeking shelter in neighboring Syria, where rents are often cheaper than in the safer parts of Lebanon.




Syrian refugees returning from Lebanon to their country through the Al-Zamrani crossing on May 14, 2024. (AFP)

For Syrian families unable to return to their home country, fearing detention or conscription, onward migration from Lebanon to Europe is viewed as the next best option. However, irregular migration is becoming increasingly difficult.

In early May, the EU announced a €1 billion ($1.1 billion) aid package partly aimed at strengthening Lebanese security services to help curb irregular migration across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

On Aug. 19, the Lebanese army said it arrested 230 Syrians who were attempting to reach Europe aboard a smuggling vessel. The military also conducted raids in the town of Bebnine and the Arida beach in northern Lebanon, where boats headed for Cyprus are often launched.




Greek fishermen rescue Syrian Kurdish refugees as the boat they had boarded sinks off the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkiye on October 30, 2015. (AFP)

Amnesty International criticized the EU-Lebanon deal, calling on world leaders to ensure funds pledged to support Syrian refugees in Lebanon “do not contribute to human rights abuses, including forcible deportations to Syria.”

The human rights monitor said the deal seems to have “emboldened Lebanese authorities to intensify their ruthless campaign targeting refugees with hateful discourse, forced deportations and stifling measures on residency and labor.”

The anti-Syrian rhetoric employed by Lebanese politicians has provoked an uptick in violence and harassment against refugees. Meanwhile, authorities have increased deportations and imposed tighter work and residency rules, leaving thousands with little choice but to leave.




A girl speaks with another as he carries a young boy while walking past tents at a makeshift camp for Syrian refugees in Talhayat in the Akkar district in north Lebanon on October 26, 2022. (AFP)

In June, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said “most Syrians” in the country would be deported, claiming that his government was “in the process of putting in place a solution” to the refugee issue.

After issuing eviction orders in June, Lebanese security forces conducted door-to-door checks in the northern villages of Btourram and Hasroun to confirm that Syrians living there without legal documentation had vacated their residences.

On Aug. 28, the Lebanese National News Agency also reported that security forces had evicted Syrians from their homes in the village of Rashkida in the northern Batroun district.

As a result, dozens of Syrian families have been left homeless, forcing them to seek refuge either with relatives in other parts of Lebanon or in makeshift camps, with serious implications for their health and well-being.




A Syrian refugee walks with her children at a refugee camp set up outside the Lebanese village of Miniara, in the northern Akkar region near the border with Syria, on May 20, 2024. (AFP)

MedGlobal’s Baban said that “while our immediate focus is on addressing these critical healthcare needs, we are acutely aware of the long-term impacts of this crisis, including the inevitable rise in mental health challenges.

“Although psychological support is not currently part of our services, we fully recognize its significance and are committed to considering a comprehensive mental health support program in our future response efforts.”

She added that the situation is becoming “increasingly untenable, and the urgency for international support and attention cannot be overstated.

“We are doing everything within our power to alleviate the suffering, but the scale of this crisis demands a coordinated global response to prevent further human tragedy.”

 


Kuwaiti first deputy prime minister affirms military cooperation with US forces

Updated 19 January 2025
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Kuwaiti first deputy prime minister affirms military cooperation with US forces

  • Sheikh Fahad Yusuf Saud Al-Sabah met with Lt. Gen. Patrick Frank, commander of US Army Central and Third Army
  • The Kuwait Army’s deputy chief and senior officers also joined the visit to Camp Buehring

LONDON: Kuwaiti First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Minister of Interior Sheikh Fahad Yusuf Saud Al-Sabah has visited Camp Buehring to reaffirm the strong military cooperation between his country and the US.

During his visit on Saturday, Sheikh Fahad met with Lt. Gen. Patrick Frank, commander of US Army Central and Third Army, and Karen Hideko Sasahara, US Ambassador to Kuwait.

Sheikh Fahad was briefed on the camp’s tasks and the troops’ preparedness. He also examined operational plans and missions and reaffirmed his commitment to strengthening the training and defense coordination partnership between Kuwait and the US.

Also joining the visit were Deputy Chief of Staff of the Kuwait Army Air Marshal Sheikh Sabah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and other senior officers.


Palestinians trek across rubble to return to their homes as Gaza ceasefire takes hold

Updated 35 min 52 sec ago
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Palestinians trek across rubble to return to their homes as Gaza ceasefire takes hold

  • Many Palestinian found their homes reduced to rubble

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip: Even before the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was fully in place Sunday, Palestinians in the war-battered Gaza Strip began to return to the remains of the homes they had evacuated during the 15-month war.
Majida Abu Jarad made quick work of packing the contents of her family’s tent in the sprawling tent city of Muwasi, just north of the strip’s southern border with Egypt.
At the start of the war, they were forced to flee their house in Gaza’s northern town of Beit Hanoun, where they used to gather around the kitchen table or on the roof on summer evenings amid the scent of roses and jasmine.
The house from those fond memories is gone, and for the past year, Abu Jarad, her husband and their six daughters have trekked the length of the Gaza Strip, following one evacuation order after another by the Israeli military.
Seven times they fled, she said, and each time, their lives became more unrecognizable to them as they crowded with strangers to sleep in a school classroom, searching for water in a vast tent camp or sleeping on the street.
Now the family is preparing to begin the trek home — or to whatever remains of it — and to reunite with relatives who remained in the north.
“As soon as they said that the truce would start on Sunday, we started packing our bags and deciding what we would take, not caring that we would still be living in tents,” Abu Jarad said.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians in Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. Over 110,000 Palestinians have been wounded, it said. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The Israeli military’s bombardment has flattened large swaths of Gaza and displaced 1.9 million of its 2.3 million residents.
Even before the ceasefire officially took effect — and as tank shelling continued overnight and into the morning — many Palestinians began trekking through the wreckage to reach their homes, some on foot and others hauling their belongings on donkey carts.
“They’re returning to retrieve their loved ones under the rubble,” said Mohamed Mahdi, a displaced Palestinian and father of two. He was forced to leave his three-story home in Gaza City’s southeastern Zaytoun neighborhood a few months ago,
Mahdi managed to reach his home Sunday morning, walking amid the rubble from western Gaza. On the road he said he saw the Hamas-run police force being deployed to the streets in Gaza City, helping people returning to their homes.
Despite the vast scale of the destruction and uncertain prospects for rebuilding, “people were celebrating,” he said. “They are happy. They started clearing the streets and removing the rubble of their homes. It’s a moment they’ve waited for 15 months.”
Um Saber, a 48-year-old widow and mother of six children, returned to her hometown of Beit Lahiya. She asked to be identified only by her honorific, meaning “mother of Saber,” out of safety concerns.
Speaking by phone, she said her family had found bodies in the street as they trekked home, some of whom appeared to have been lying in the open for weeks.
When they reached Beit Lahiya, they found their home and much of the surrounding area reduced to rubble, she said. Some families immediately began digging through the debris in search of missing loved ones. Others began trying to clear areas where they could set up tents.
Um Saber said she also found the area’s Kamal Adwan hospital “completely destroyed.”
“It’s no longer a hospital at all,” she said. “They destroyed everything.”
The hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli forces waging an offensive in largely isolated northern Gaza against Hamas fighters it says have regrouped.
The military has claimed that Hamas militants operate inside Kamal Adwan, which hospital officials have denied.
In Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, residents returned to find massive destruction across the city that was once a hub for displaced families fleeing Israel’s bombardment elsewhere in the Palestinian enclave. Some found human remains amid the rubble of houses and the streets.
“It’s an indescribable scene. It’s like you see a Hollywood horror movie,” said Mohamed Abu Taha, a Rafah resident, speaking to The Associated Press as he and his brother were inspecting his family home in the city’s Salam neighborhood. “Flattened houses, human remains, skulls and other body parts, in the street and in the rubble.”
He shared footage of piles of rubble he said had been his family’s house. “I want to know how they destroyed our home.”
The returns come amid looming uncertainty regarding whether the ceasefire deal will bring more than a temporary halt to the fighting, who will govern the enclave and how it will be rebuilt.
Not all families will be able to return home immediately. Under the terms of the deal, returning displaced people will only be able to cross the Netzarim corridor from south to north beginning seven days into the ceasefire.
And those who do return may face a long wait to rebuild their houses.
The United Nations has said that reconstruction could take more than 350 years if Gaza remains under an Israeli blockade. Using satellite data, the United Nations estimated last month that 69 percent of the structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, including over 245,000 homes. With over 100 trucks working full-time, it would take more than 15 years just to clear the rubble away,
But for many families, the immediate relief overrode fears about the future.
“We will remain in a tent, but the difference is that the bleeding will stop, the fear will stop, and we will sleep reassured,” Abu Jarad said.


UAE president receives call from Syria’s new leader

Updated 19 January 2025
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UAE president receives call from Syria’s new leader

  • Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan affirmed that the UAE supports the Syrian people’s aspirations for security and peace

LONDON: UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan received a call from Ahmed Al-Sharaa, the leader of the new Syrian administration, on Sunday.

During the call, both sides discussed ways to enhance relations between the two countries in areas of mutual interest.

Sheikh Mohamed emphasized the UAE’s unwavering support for Syria’s independence and sovereignty over its territory, the Emirates News Agency reported.

The UAE supports the Syrian people’s aspirations for security, peace, and a dignified life, he added.


Syria destroys millions of captagon pills, other drugs

Updated 19 January 2025
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Syria destroys millions of captagon pills, other drugs

  • Officials find100 million pills of the amphetamine-like stimulant captagon
  • Production and trafficking of the drug flourished under ousted President Bashar Assad

DAMASCUS: Syrian security forces destroyed seized drugs Sunday including around 100 million pills of the amphetamine-like stimulant captagon — whose production and trafficking flourished under ousted president Bashar Assad, an official said.
A 2022 AFP investigation found that Syria under Assad had become a narco state, with the $10-billion captagon industry dwarfing all other exports and funding both his regime and many of his enemies.
“We destroyed large quantities of narcotic pills,” said official Badr Youssef, including “about 100 million captagon pills and 10 to 15 tons of hashish” as well as raw materials used to produce captagon.
He spoke from the Damascus headquarters of the defunct Fourth Division where the drugs were seized. The Fourth Division, a notorious branch of the Syrian army, was controlled by Assad’s brother Maher.
The official SANA news agency said “the anti-narcotics department of the (interior) ministry is destroying narcotic substances seized at the headquarters of the Fourth Division.”
An AFP photographer saw security personnel in a Fourth Division warehouse load dozens of bags filled with pills and other drugs into trucks, before taking them to a field to be burned.
On December 8, Islamist-led rebels ousted Assad after a lightning offensive that lasted less than two weeks. The army and Assad’s security apparatus collapsed as the new authorities seized control of Damascus.
On Saturday, SANA reported that authorities had seized “a huge warehouse belonging to the former regime” in the coastal city of Latakia. It said the factory “specialized in packing captagon pills into children’s toys and furniture.”
On Sunday, an AFP photographer visited the warehouse near the port and saw security personnel dismantling children’s bicycles that contained the small white pills.
Captagon pills had also been hidden inside objects such as doors, shisha water pipes and car parts, he reported.
Abu Rayyan, a security official in Latakia, said that “about 50 to 60 million captagon pills” had been seized that “belonged to the Fourth Division.”
“This is the largest such warehouse in the area,” he said.
Abu Rayyan said the drugs had been packed for export from Latakia “to neighboring countries,” and that they would be destroyed.


Syrian defense minister rejects Kurdish proposal for its own military bloc

Updated 19 January 2025
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Syrian defense minister rejects Kurdish proposal for its own military bloc

  • Defense minister aims to bring anti-Assad factions into unified command
  • Kurdish SDF has proposed retaining own bloc in armed forces

DAMASCUS: Syria’s new defense minister said on Sunday it would not be right for US-backed Kurdish fighters based in the country’s northeast to retain their own bloc within the broader integrated Syrian armed forces.
Speaking to Reuters at the Defense Ministry in Damascus, Murhaf Abu Qasra said the leadership of the Kurdish fighters, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), was procrastinating in its handling of the complex issue.
The SDF, which has carved out a semi-autonomous zone through 14 years of civil war, has been in talks with the new administration in Damascus led by former rebels who toppled President Bashar Assad on Dec. 8.
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi has said one of their central demands is a decentralized administration, saying in an interview with Saudi Arabia’s Asharq News channel last week that the SDF was open to integrating with the Defense Ministry but as “a military bloc,” and without dissolving.
Abu Qasra rejected that proposal on Sunday.
“We say that they would enter the Defense Ministry within the hierarchy of the Defense Ministry, and be distributed in a military way — we have no issue there,” said Abu Qasra, who was appointed defense minister on Dec. 21.
“But for them to remain a military bloc within the Defense Ministry, such a bloc within a big institution is not right.”
One of the minister’s priorities since taking office has been integrating Syria’s myriad anti-Assad factions into a unified command structure.
But doing so with the SDF has proved challenging. The US considers the group a key ally against Daesh militants, but neighboring Turkiye regards it as a national security threat.
Abu Qasra said he had met the SDF’s leaders but accused them of “procrastinating” in talks over their integration, and said incorporating them in the Defense Ministry like other ex-rebel factions was “a right of the Syrian state.”
Abu Qasra was appointed to the transitional government about two weeks after Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the Islamist group to which he belongs, led the offensive that ousted Assad.
He said he hoped to finish the integration process, including appointing some senior military figures, by March 1, when the transitional government’s time in power is set to end.
Asked how he responded to criticism that a transitional council should not make such appointments or carry out such sweeping changes of the military infrastructure, he said “security issues” had prompted the new state to prioritize the matter.
“We are in a race against time and every day makes a difference,” he said.
The new administration was also criticized over its decision to give some foreigners, including Egyptians and Jordanians, ranks in the new military.
Abu Qasra acknowledged the decision had created a firestorm but said he was not aware of any requests to extradite any of the foreign fighters.