Amid the bombing of the Lebanese-Israeli border, overcrowded camps and lacking everything, some Syrian refugees are considering crossing the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe.
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After four months of war between Israel and Hamas on the Gaza front, the conflict has spread to southern Lebanon. A covert war between the Lebanese Hezbollah, the support of the Palestinian Hamas and the Israeli army.
The border between the two countries is the scene of daily bombings: at least 248 people have been killed since October 8, including 37 civilians and 178 Hezbollah fighters, according to daily counts. L’Orient-Le Jour. But some people are too poor to flee the area. Among them, Syrian refugees who have been living in extremely precarious conditions in the south of the country for years find themselves caught up in the new war.
This is the case of Houda and her family, who for 134 days have lived in the rhythm of the strike on the hills near the mud camp, on the Lebanese-Israeli border, between makeshift tents, the confrontation zone. “There is war in Syria and now in Lebanon, too. she moans. The situation is only getting worse. We are terrified. My daughter is speechless because she is so scared. At night, we jump at every explosion. My husband wanted to leave but we didn’t have the money to run away anywhere else.
Lives destroyed by wars
The trauma of the war in Syria is returning. The family lacks everything: Khaled, in his forties, works in the fields in a neighboring village, for a few dollars a day. Areas which have become inaccessible due to bombing. “We collect plastic and take loans to survive, he says. But since the beginning of the war, no one lends us more money. Lebanese receive aid, boxes of food. We haven’t seen anyone for four months. Now no NGO comes here. We want sugar, rice, bread. The United Nations has abandoned us.
To heat the few square meters where twelve of them sleep, the grandmother burns garbage in an old wood stove. Beside her, Miled, a father of four from Syria’s Idlib province, fled his war-torn region. “We died in Syria as in Lebanon. What did we do to deserve this? God has cursed the Syrian people. Our lives have been destroyed. We no longer have a future.” he said.
“I’m 40, it’s over for me, but I think about my children: there’s no one who doesn’t know how to write their first name. There’s no school.”
Milled, a Syrian refugeeat franceinfo
“Our situation was already difficult, but since the war started in October, life has become impossible”, he adds. Before our departure, Milad announces his intention to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe with his family. New exiles on makeshift boats, at the risk of their lives.
