Desperate journeys: Syrian refugees fleeing Israel’s assault on Lebanon

Al-Bara, Syria – Musa Baghdadi paid $6, 000 for the privilege of exchanging one bombardment for another. “I paid to escape the shelling in Lebanon to reach my village, which is also under bombardment by Assad’s army”, he tells Al Jazeera at his modest, one-storey home in al-Bara, western Idlib.

In the 12 years since the Baghdadi family fled the Syrian government and found refuge in Lebanon, the little house has not performed well. It has been severely damaged by shelling by al-Assad regime forces and currently has no windows; all will need to be replaced. It’s not as bad as many of Baghdadi’s neighbours have suffered, though – many houses nearby were destroyed.

Baghdadi, 64, is just one of more than a quarter of a million Syrians who are thought to have returned to Syria since last month’s start-up Israeli assault. The precise number has been placed at 253, 284 by local media reports.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), based in London, reports that there have now been 176 Syrian refugees killed in Lebanon as a result of the ongoing and intense Israeli incursions on Lebanese territory, including 33 women and 46 children.

So, after 12 years in Lebanon, Baghdadi returned with his wife and four grandchildren, aged 11 to 14, to their home village of al-Bara, located near the front lines of Syrian regime forces. The children’s father – Baghdadi’s son – was killed in 2012 when their home came under bombardment, and their mother has since remarried and remained in Syria.

Lebanon’s return trip was not always simple.

When Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon on September 21 exploded in full force, Baghdadi had already taken his family from their new home in Nabatieh, a village in Nabatieh. The Israeli army had already opened fire on the location on August 23 as part of the nearly daily firefights between Hezbollah and Israel across the border since Israel’s occupation of Gaza began in October of last year.

The family headed first to the village of Ghazieh, south of Sidon, about 30km (18.5 miles) away. Because of the congested traffic jammed by people fleeing al-Duwayr, they were forced to sleep on the pavement of a Sidon street that night.

“We rented a house for $350 for a week the following day to a mountain near Sidon.” It had no water or electricity, but it was still better than staying on the street”, Baghdadi says.

His account contrasts with those of other Syrian and Lebanese refugees who claim landlords are raising rents to profit from their situation.

An ‘ amnesty ‘ that is anything but

Baghdadi decided it would be safer to go back to Syria as the Israeli assault on Lebanon grew. It seemed preferable to stay in Lebanon even though the journey to the family’s traditional village in rural Idlib, which would involve crossing through Syria’s under-regime areas, would be risky of being kidnapped or detained by Syrian armed forces members.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad made the 24th promise of amnesty to political prisoners and men of conscription who had avoided military service on September 22, which coincided with the start of the Israeli assault on Lebanon. But observers say this promise, made to encourage Syrians to return home, is not what it seems.

Writing for Al Jazeera, Hadi al-Bahra, president of the Syrian National Coalition, said: “Al-Assad utilises these decrees as a means to deceive the international community that he is making an effort towards stability and reconciliation.

However, a closer examination of these decrees reveals that security organizations have a lot of room to manipulate the fates of people who allegedly receive amnesty.

While the decrees specify amnesty for certain offences, charges levelled by the regime against political opponents, such as” terrorism “and” high treason”, remain excluded, al-Bahra said”. This effectively means that the majority of political prisoners and activists are still outside these laws, rendering them ineffective for facilitating refugees’ return.

Baghdadi and his family appeared to be at risk because they were too concerned about avoiding encounters with the regime’s forces once they reached Syria.

” Keeping my son’s children safe – my son was killed in 2012 by Assad’s forces – was all I could think about, “he says”. For $6, 000, I spoke with a smuggler who assured me that we would reach Idlib without going through any regime checkpoints.

One week of intense travel

The family traveled seven days to their Syria village, passing through Damascus, Homs, and Hama, before traveling by truck through agricultural roads free of regime checkpoints to Aleppo.

A truck took us on rough roads without turning on the lights out of fear of being detected by the regime’s forces, says Bagdadi, “The nights were terrifying, especially since most of our movements were at night.”

He and his wife, Warda Yunis, 56, arrived in their hometown a week after setting off” with tears of longing and joy”, he says.

” The moment I saw our village, I prostrated in gratitude to God for saving us and bringing us back safely, “Yunis says”. When I arrived at my home, I was shocked by the destruction in my hometown, and I was devastated when I discovered it severely damaged from shelling.

She claims that Yunis pushed her husband to make the decision to leave because she had been eager to go back.

” Twelve years ago, we sought refuge in Lebanon to escape the war, but in my last days there, I witnessed a number of Syrian refugees being killed due to Israeli air strikes, “she explains”. If we had stayed in Lebanon, we would have died. Here, also, we are at risk of death, but I prefer to die in my village, “Yunis says now.

fees and payments to cross the border

Between September 21 and October 3, 235, 000 people from Lebanon crossed into Syria via land, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

In a statement on Friday, Matthew Luciano, head of the IOM office in Lebanon, said this mass displacement included about 82, 000 Lebanese and 152, 000 Syrians who have left the country by road, in addition to about 50, 000 other individuals, mostly Lebanese, who left from Beirut airport. Some 10, 000 Syrians left via Beirut airport during the same period, and a further 1, 000 have fled by sea.

Before the conflict in Gaza sparked regular firefights between Israel and Hezbollah in October, Syrians had trouble living in Lebanon.

” Before the war in Lebanon, we were uncomfortable, especially after the assaults on Syrian refugees and calls for their deportation, “says Mariam al-Qassem, 60, a mother of four who has lived in Sidon, southern Lebanon, for the past 12 years. After returning from Lebanon where she is tenderly watering the plants she has placed on the outside wall of her home, she begins to make this place a home again. She speaks to Al Jazeera from her home in Ihsim, which is also rural Idlib.

” With the onset of the war, we had no choice but to return and face all the risks we might encounter, “she adds.

Al-Qassem and her family eluded southern Lebanon’s recent upheaval by moving to the village of Sebline, where they spent four days interning in a UNRWA shelter before calling a smuggler to arrange transportation back to their town of Ihsim in the Idlib countryside.

According to al-Qassem, “when my husband contacted the smuggler, it was agreed that we would give him money in exchange for avoiding any checkpoints of the regime’s army along the way.”

Despite these assurances, however”, when our journey began, we were surprised that the smuggler took us to the Masnaa crossing controlled by Assad’s forces”, al-Qassem says. The couple and their children were left to take their own lives when the smuggler vanished at this point.

She worried about her 20-year-old son Ahmed, who is regarded as a conscription target in Syria, and worried about her husband’s arrest. I would prefer to die in Lebanon rather than cross through the Syrian regime’s checkpoints, “she says.

My husband and son entered a room at the crossing for Syrian security, and they stayed there for about two hours while I waited outside with my daughter, according to al-Qassem. “My eyes never stopped crying because I feared for them,” said the statement.

She continues, “Unfortunately, Syrians were extorted to be allowed to cross Syria, while Lebanese were allowed to enter without any obstacles.”

When al-Qassem’s husband, Omar Mohammed Saleh Fadiel, and their son Mustafa finally emerged from the Syrian security room after paying them off – 200, 000 Syrian pounds ($15) per person, according to Fadiel – they were told to check in with the recruitment office in Damascus, where their son would be required to join the military within 15 days.

The family would have to repeat the same pattern ten more times between there and their village.

” At every checkpoint of Assad’s army that we encountered, we were asked to pay money to be allowed to pass, “Fadiel explains.

He claims that the Fourth Division of the Syrian Army guarded a barrier near Manbij in the Aleppo countryside, where the bus carrying them sat there overnight while they waited for crossing permission, making it one of the most difficult checkpoints they encountered.

” Throughout that night, every now and then, members of the Fourth Division would come up to us, search us, threaten us and demand money to allow us to pass through, “Fadiel says”. At this checkpoint alone, I paid nearly 4 million Syrian pounds]$270]. “Those who cannot pay these” fees “face arrest.

Homecoming

The family’s journey continued until one day later when they crossed the humanitarian border between the Syrian National Army’s and the Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of ethnic militias and rebel groups led by Kurdish-led coalition.

“We had already gotten past the danger that was looming over us,” Fadiel says.

We immediately made our way to our town of Ihsim in the Idlib countryside once we were granted entry to the Syrian opposition-held areas in the eastern Aleppo countryside, he says.

About 1,700 civilians reportedly fleeing the Syrian Civil Defense’s controlled areas of northwestern Syria, according to the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets.

Fadiel and his wife’s recent arrival in their home is a huge relief. I would have traveled back to Lebanon if there had been borders, but he claims that the uncertainty of the unknown fate that awaits me in the areas under the control of Assad’s regime prevented me from returning. After al-Assad’s forces stop shelling his village, Fadiel’s most dearest wish is to now participate in the reconstruction of his village.

He claims he has no desire to leave.

Source: Aljazeera