A Syrian refugee in Lebanon has spoken out about the horror they are facing as more Israeli air strikes rain down on them and the death toll mounts.
Latifa, a Syrian refugee in Lebanon and a member of Families For Freedom, a women-led movement that campaigns for justice and freedom for Syrian detainees, said: “We are very afraid. We have nowhere to go and no financial savings.
“We are hosting three families at the local centre and we have nothing to offer them. They need water, food, and shelter. There are no blankets, and the weather is freezing.
“Returning to Syria is not an option. Some who returned to Syria have been killed. I am wanted by the regime and would likely be arrested, tortured, and transferred from one detention branch to another.
“I would rather stay here and die. So many refugees here survived detention, but they cannot return to Syria, or they will be re-arrested and plunged back into the nightmare they escaped.”
Lebanon is home to 1.5 million Syrians and many face the threat of violence, detention and torture if they go back to Syria, leaving them with nowhere to go in the face of Israel’s deadliest attacks on Lebanon in two decades.
Issam Al-Younes, whose relatives were killed in the attacks on Lebanon this week said from Idlib, Syria: “My cousin Abdullah Al-Yasin was killed alongside his wife and four children. Their neighbors, a Syrian family displaced from Balyoun, were also killed.
“I am heartbroken and in deep pain because I couldn’t say goodbye to them.
“They had fled from the Assad regime’s bombing only to die from bombardment there. Many of our relatives who are refugees in Lebanon are unable to return to Syria for fear of arrest. Our fears for their safety are immense.”
More than 560 civilians have been killed by Israeli strikes so far since Monday, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
Israel’ has rejected proposals for a ceasefire in Lebanon after the US and France called for a 21-day halt in the fighting to allow time to reach a diplomatic solution.
Mohammad Hasan, the Executive Director of Access Center for Human Rights, a refugee-led group operating in Lebanon, said: “We are still waiting for the UNHCR and international agencies to respond to this catastrophe.
“Some informal shelters are opening in schools, but our concerns for Syrian refugees include whether they will be admitted to these shelters and the fact that some municipalities do not allow them to rent apartments.”