After years away from their homeland, some Syrian refugees are forced to return because of Israel’s war against Hezbollah. In the last 48 hours, almost 30,000 people have been displaced. Lebanese authorities report that "15,600 Syrian citizens and 16,130 Lebanese citizens" have crossed the border. Syrians who return face a triple dilemma: arrest, military draft, or loss of refugee status.

Damascus (AsiaNews) – For the past several years, Syrians were the ones fleeing their war-torn country, seeking refuge in neighbouring Lebanon. Now we are seeing the opposite: thousands of Lebanese (and Syrians) are trying to cross into Syria, which seems safer at present than Lebanon under Israeli bombs, this despite its persistent instability after more than a decade of a brutal war that failed to unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

A desperate exodus is underway as Israeli planes roam Lebanon’s skies, causing over 700 deaths and thousands of wounded, including women and children.

For days, humanitarian NGOs and international groups have been denouncing the emergency, including the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), which has increased its assistance to the displaced.

According to Lebanese authorities, almost 30,000 people have been displaced in the past 48 hours, with many abandoning their homes in a hurry, this in a country hosting about 1.5 million Syrian refugees, plus 11,000 from elsewhere.

“This bloodshed is extracting a terrible toll, driving tens of thousands from their homes,” said Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees

“It is yet another ordeal for families who previously fled war in Syria only now to be bombed in the country where they sought shelter,” Grandi stressed. “We must avoid replaying these scenes of despair and devastation. The Middle East cannot afford a new displacement crisis.”

Still, hundreds of vehicles are queuing up at the Syrian border, with many people arriving on foot, carrying whatever they can. As temperatures begin to drop, groups of women with small children or babies wait in line after spending the night outdoors.

Some people carry fresh wounds from the recent bombings, asking for the help of UNHCR workers present on the ground and at border crossings. The UN agency together and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent are providing food, water, blankets, and mattresses.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees notes that the humanitarian situation in Syria is still dire because the 2023 earthquake and the country’s drawn-out civil war have left critical infrastructure in tatters and millions in need of assistance.

Lebanese authorities “recorded the crossing of 15,600 Syrian citizens and 16,130 Lebanese citizens into Syrian territory". Syrian security sources told AFP add that this week more than 22,000 people, including more than 7,000 Lebanese, crossed the border between the two countries using the only two available entry points.

In an interview with The National on Wednesday, Lebanon's Economy Minister Amin Salam said all families fleeing the Israeli shelling, Lebanese or Syrian, are eligible for aid, but that “priority is being given to Lebanese people”.

The status of Syrians in Lebanon remains a very delicate issue, especially since 2019 when the country slid into what the World Bank described as one of the worst economic crises in centuries.

Since Monday, loads of buses and cars have formed long queues that stretch several kilometres ahead of the border with Syria while some families have embarked on the long journey on foot.

Once in Syria (where five soldiers were killed in an Israeli attack today), people waited another few hours to be registered by overburdened border officials, while relief workers handed out food, water, mattresses, and blankets non-stop.

Some of the people are returning refugees like Emad al-Salim, who fled Aleppo in 2014. He was living in the southern coastal city of Tyre when the bombing began. Quickly, he picked up his wife and six children and fled again.

Some “houses [were] destroyed in front of me as we were coming out,” he told the Associated Press. “It took us three days to get here.”

Nada Hamid al-Lajji, her husband and their children are also making the journey back after seven years in Lebanon. Originally from eastern Syria, they still don't know where to go because “I don't even have a home anymore.”

Many Lebanese families are also fleeing. Mahmoud Ahmad Tawbeh, from Arnoun, a village in the south, would like to stay with his extended family of 35 people in a rented house in a suburb of Damascus.

“We left with difficulty, there were a lot of bombs dropping above our heads,” he said. Five or six houses in the village were destroyed and several neighbours were killed, he added.

For many in Lebanon, particularly those in the Bekaa Valley, in the east, Syria appears to be the fastest route to safety. In addition to those who fled the civil war, many Syrians had come to Lebanon for work or family reasons and are used to crossing the border regularly.

Finally, many of the Syrian refugees are reluctant to return to their homeland for fear of arrest on charges or suspicion of links with the opposition to Assad, of being forcibly drafted into the army, or losing their refugee status.

• lebanon
• israel
• syria
• refugees
• hezbollah
• war
• bombings
• united nations refugee agency
• unhcr
• filippo grandi
• un high commissioner for refugees