(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian refugees bid farewell to their fourth consecutive year living in Lebanon while suffering the hardships of exile from Syria.
According to a poll conducted by Zaman al-Wasl among the camp residents in eastern Lebanon, most respondents described this year as their worst year living in the camps.
Between the killing, displacement, fire and arrests 2017 has left behind it great grief and misery in the camps that are besieged by all kinds of rejection from the Lebanese.
This rejection reached its severest for the Syrian refugees in Arsal on the morning of June 30, 2017, when the sounds of a large-scale military operation woke everyone in the night. The Lebanese al-Majoqal regiment raided the camps of al-Nour and al-Qarah inside Arsal in a massive military operation where the army massacred camp residents and arrested more than 400 refugees. The army killed 20 refugees using bullets and grenades launched during the raid, and their bodies were taken to an unknown location. One child Najat al-Beek, 5, was killed in her tent after an army tank drove over the tent she lived in.
The Lebanese authorities increased the suffering of Syrian refugees when they killed several of those arrested during the military campaign while they were held in prison.
According to medical, international and human rights reports, the men arrested bear marks of torture on their bodies indicating that they were tortured while in Lebanese military custody and then liquidated. Dozens of videos and images documenting the issue show traces of torture and brutal beatings on the bodies of the victims.
These images were leaked despite Lebanese Army attempts to cover up the issue. Zaman al-Wasl played a role in documenting the images, and here we mention names of the victims, Tawfiq Mohammed al-Ghawi, Mustafa Abdul Karim Abbas, Khaled Hussein al-Mulais, Khaldun Halawa, Othman Maree al-Mulais, the nurse Anas Hussein al-Hasiki and the brothers Safwan and Marwan al-Issa from al-Qusayr.
It is also necessary to mention Radwan al-Issa, a double amputee who was wheelchair bound. He was killed in al-Nour camp in front of his wife.
Al-Jaroud battles
The Lebanese Hezbollah militia launched a military campaign entitled ‘Liberating the Jaroud,’ against Haya’t Tahrir al-Sham and Saraya Ahl al-Sham factions on July 20, 2017. In the campaign, they launched dozens of rockets and artillery shells on the wilderness (Jaroud) around Arsal with aerial coverage from the Syrian Air Force. The battle concluded with an agreement to move the Haya’t Tahrir al-Sham fighters to Idlib and Saraya Ahl al-Sham to the eastern Qalamoun region.
On August 19, the scenario was repeated with the Islamic State forces who left the Arsal Jaroud for Deir Ez Zor after a brief battle with the Lebanese army.
Refugees between expulsion and fire
In 2017, the Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon were hit by scores of fires resulting in massive losses without the perpetrators, organizers or beneficiaries being revealed.
Nine children died due to the fires in Gaza camp in the western Bekaa Valley. Three Syrian women died in the Bebnine camp in the fires there. All the victims are from the countryside of Homs.
The inhabitants of several camps in Syria were evicted by the landowners, the Lebanese army or security forces, mostly based on a desire to exact revenge against the people who supported the Syrian revolution. Many of the perpetrators are supporters of the Syrian regime in Lebanon and what to exact revenge against those they consider a pro-revolutionary population living in the camps in Lebanon.
The al-Dalhamiyet camp in the Bekaa Valley was the last of the camps where the Lebanese army intelligence forces displaced the camp inhabitants before the end of 2017. The camp included 65 Syrian families (around 350 people) who left their tents after receiving threats from the Lebanese army intelligence that the camp will be demolished. They now spend their nights in inhumane conditions in hangers used to house livestock.
The poorest refugees
The UNHCR issued a report confirming this year that Syrian refugees in Lebanon are classified as living in extreme poverty. The report mentioned that an individual’s daily per capita share does not exceed 2 US Dollars.
Syrian refugees in Lebanon live with constant harassment and with great difficulties in joining the labor market. In addition to facing problems accessing the service sectors of education, health and social welfare. The Lebanese state contributes to their insecurity with repeated acts of terror against the Syrian refugee population in the form of semi-daily raids and arbitrary arrests against their camps by the Lebanese Army and its security units. (Reporting by Abdel Hafiz al-Holani)
Zaman Al Wasl
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