War in Lebanon forces Syrians back to ‘unsafe’ opposition areas
Syrians returning from Lebanon to opposition-held northwestern Syria find themselves in danger once more, as the area faces a military escalation by Russia and the Assad regime, alongside Syrian National Army (SNA) infighting.
21 October 2024
PARIS — Stepping through the gates of the Aoun al-Dadat crossing into the opposition-held Aleppo countryside last week, Iman al-Muhammad and her six children began a new chapter. In her arms, the 35-year-old mother carried her son, who was injured by an Israeli bombing in Lebanon, the country that was her refuge for nine years.
Heading for al-Muhammad’s hometown in rural Idlib, the family was one step closer to the end of a journey that was no less difficult, she said, than days spent under Israeli bombardment. Still ahead lay another crossing: from SNA territory into Idlib, controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Back in Lebanon, al-Muhammad’s husband anxiously waited for word of their arrival.
Al-Muhammad spent two days last week waiting to be allowed through the gates of the Aoun al-Dadat crossing between Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)-controlled territory and the Syrian National Army (SNA)-controlled Aleppo countryside. She finally crossed with her children on the evening of October 16.
The journey from Lebanon was hard, but more difficult was “traveling with a wounded child, on a journey where nobody shows mercy on you or sympathizes,” al-Muhammad told Syria Direct shortly after making the crossing. The smugglers who ferried her to the crossing were “cruel,” she said, for “abandoning us at the crossing for two days, sleeping in the dirt” while waiting to be allowed through. “We slept for two nights in the street, hungry and thirsty,” she said.
While al-Muhammad did not say how long the entire journey from Lebanon to the crossing took, other sources said it took them four days.
Al-Muhammad and her children were part of the latest batch of Syrians returnees to enter opposition territories through Aoun al-Dadat. Before October 16, 2,700 others had arrived, Ziyad Harkoush, an official with the Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets) in the Aleppo countryside, told Syria Direct.
Syrian media published pictures and videos last week showing Syrians like al-Muhammad stuck on the other side of the Aoun al-Dadat crossing, waiting to enter. The head of the Turkish-backed Syrian Interim Government (SIG), Abdurrahman Mustafa, denied that there were “families stuck at the crossing,” describing their plight as a delay “due to the large flow [of people] and the need to take administrative and security measures to verify the returnees’ identities and ensure their safety.”
Those returning to northwestern Syria made up the smallest portion of the more than 421,000 people—70 percent of them Syrians—who have crossed into Syria from Lebanon from September 24 to October 18. Most have remained in regime-held territories, while some have headed to SDF areas.
‘Death follows us’
Abu Qassem al-Homsi arrived with his family at his brother’s house in the Idlib countryside on October 14, completing a journey that he, too, described as “cruel.” Starting in Beirut, they traversed regime and SDF-held areas, heading to Jarablus in the opposition-controlled Aleppo countryside before traveling onward to Idlib. He paid smugglers $350 for the journey, he told Syria Direct.
Just as al-Homsi reached his brother—who is displaced from the northern Homs countryside—a regime and Russian escalation against northwestern Syria began. Wednesday was the most intense day of bombings, with Russian warplanes and regime artillery pounding Idlib and western Aleppo, killing 11 people and injuring 39 others.
“Death follows us,” al-Homsi said. His family arrived in Idlib after fleeing Israeli bombings of what Tel Aviv says are Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, only to contend with a new danger.
For Syrians seeking refuge in the northern Aleppo countryside, the situation has not been better. There, infighting broke out between al-Jabha al-Shamiya and the Joint Force—both part of the SNA—on Wednesday evening. One woman was killed as a result of the fighting, while civilians were injured and classes in schools in Azaz city were suspended.
“There is no safe place for us to run to,” Samer al-Hamad, who returned from Lebanon to his hometown of Azaz last week, said. While he knows “the area is not safe to live in,” the 36-year-old had few other options. “The doors were closed to us. I spent a week in a tent in downtown Beirut with my family” before deciding to make a four-day journey back from Lebanon, where he had been a refugee since 2013.
No assistance
After 11 years as refugees in Lebanon, Umm Salim’s family—alongside the families of her two married daughters—are back at their mostly destroyed home in Idlib city, crowded into one small room that remains intact.
The three families fled Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahiya, which Israel has bombarded heavily as part of its latest war, the 50-year-old said. Her husband was arrested by Syrian authorities shortly after they entered the al-Masnaa border crossing with Lebanon. The family knows nothing about his fate.
“We own nothing but the clothes on our backs. All the bags we had with us remained at the crossing, because we were not allowed to bring them in,” Umm Salim said. The family has been in Idlib for two weeks now, and have not been contacted by any relief agency. “We only want clothes to wear, so we can do laundry,” she said.
Al-Hamad is staying with his family at his brother’s residence in Azaz. Since they arrived, he has been waiting for humanitarian organizations to mobilize for returnees from Lebanon. He hopes to “secure a private residence,” but so far “we have not received any assistance, not even food,” he said.
Al-Hamad has gone to the local council in Azaz to obtain personal identification cards for himself and his family, but has yet to receive them. “They say it takes some time,” he said. Without the identification, “schools refuse to take my four children,” he added.
At the Aoun al-Dadat crossing, personnel from the SIG-affiliated civil registry issued the family a temporary civil record document to allow them to move around opposition areas and apply for official identification, but this document does not allow the children to enroll in school, he said.
SIG President Mustafa said his government has worked to “facilitate the entry of returning Syrian families by directing the military police to provide all assistance, as well as providing relocation to their places of settlement.” He noted the arrival of “Christian families to Afrin” among those returning from Lebanon.
Mustafa told Syria Direct last week that the SIG has contacted “UN agencies, and several meetings have been held, including direct meetings at the SIG representative office in Gaziantep” to “improve the means of delivering aid to those in need inside Syria and work to increase it to include all the liberated areas.”
The arrival of returnees from Lebanon coincided with another wave of internal displacement “due to the ongoing targeting of western Aleppo and Idlib, amid a continuous decline in the provision of humanitarian aid, which increases the pressure on the area,” Mustafa said.
The SIG “prioritizes the humanitarian aspect and seeks to provide everything necessary for returning families,” Mustafa added. However, his account contradicted those of three sources Syria Direct spoke to as they entered through the Aoun al-Dadat crossing on Wednesday evening, two days after the interview. They said they were trapped at the crossing for two days.
Violations on the return journey
Syrians in Lebanon have long refused to return to their country voluntarily, despite waves of violence and discrimination against them. But as Israel’s war in Lebanon intensifies, thousands of Syrians have been forced to return, facing violations by multiple parties to the conflict along the way.
When Umm Salim’s husband, Abu Salim, was stopped at a Syrian regime checkpoint while returning from Lebanon, the officer told her “he would return in two days, because there was a small complaint against him,” she said. Two weeks later, he has not returned.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has documented the arrest of 23 Syrians returning from Lebanon, its head Fadel Abdul Ghany told The New Humanitarian and the Syrian Investigative Journalism Unit (SIRAJ) last week.
Nour al-Khatib, the head of SNHR’s Detention and Enforced Disappearance Department, expects the true number of people detained to be higher, at least 100 people, as she told Syria Direct on October 8.
Local media sources have reported that Syrians stranded at the Aoun al-Dadat crossing were subjected to financial extortion and verbal and physical harassment by SNA authorities controlling the crossing.
Mustafa denied the allegations, saying “any unlawful practices are seriously investigated” and accusing the regime and SDF of committing such violations.
As Syrians return from Lebanon, smuggling activity is flourishing, including to areas outside regime control in the SDF-controlled northeast and opposition-controlled northwest.
Syria Direct monitored posts by smugglers and local transportation companies in recent days advertising “safe and comfortable transportation,” even for Syrians wanted by the regime for conscription.
Syria Direct’s reporter contacted one of these companies, posing as a person wishing to transport family members—including one individual wanted for military service—from Beirut to Jarablus, in the northern Aleppo countryside.
The company said “the road is easy,” noting there are “near-daily trips from Beirut to northern Aleppo, and people ride the same bus from the departure point to arrival” for a cost of $50 per person. For a person wanted for military service, it quoted an additional $50.
This report was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.