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Thousands Flee Syria, Pour Into Syria 09/26 06:08
JDEIDET YABOUS, Syria (AP) -- Families fleeing the escalating conflict in
Lebanon poured into Syria in growing numbers on Wednesday, waiting for hours in
heavy traffic to reach the relative safety of another war-torn country.
U.N. officials estimated that thousands of Lebanese and Syrian families had
already made the journey. Those numbers are expected to grow as Israel targets
southern and eastern Lebanon in an aerial bombardment that local officials say
has killed more than 600 people this week, at least a quarter of them women and
children. Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah fighters and weapons.
Lines of buses and cars extended for several kilometers (miles) from the
Syria border beginning on Monday, and some families were seen making the
journey on foot. Once in Syria, people waited hours more to be processed by
overwhelmed border officials, and relief workers handed out food, water,
mattresses and blankets.
"Many will have to spend the night outdoors waiting their turn," Rula Amin,
a spokesperson for the U.N.'s refugee agency, said in a statement.
Amin said some of the people arriving from Lebanon had visible injuries
suffered from recent attacks.
The cross-border flow was a striking reversal in fortunes given that Lebanon
is still hosting more than one million Syrian refugees who fled the war in
their country that began in 2011. That's when an initially peaceful
anti-government uprising was met by a brutal government crackdown and spiraled
into an ongoing civil war.
In the Syrian border town of Jdeidet Yabous, some families sat glumly on the
side of the road when Associated Press journalists visited the area. Some used
their bags as seats, waiting for taxis, buses or relatives to pick them up.
Many said they had spent eight or nine hours in traffic just to get into Syria.
Before crossing the border, crowds packed into a government office to be
processed by immigration officers and, in the case of Syrian citizens, to
change $100 to Syrian pounds before entering -- a measure imposed in an attempt
to prop up the local currency by bringing more dollars into the country. Due to
the sudden spike in demand, the supply of Syrian pounds at the border ran short.
Some were returning refugees, like Emad al-Salim, who had fled Aleppo in
2014. He was living in the southern coastal city of Tyre when Monday's
bombardment began. He gathered his wife and six children and fled again.
"There were houses destroyed in front of me as we were coming out," he said.
"It took us three days to get here."
Nada Hamid al-Lajji returned with her family after seven years in Lebanon
with her husband. They are from eastern Syria, but al-Lajji said she doesn't
know if they will return there.
"Where am I going to go?" she said. "I don't even have a house anymore. I
don't know where I will go."
Many Lebanese families were also fleeing. Mahmoud Ahmad Tawbeh from the
village of Arnoun in the country's south had come with an extended family of 35
people, planning to stay in a rented house in a Damascus suburb.
"We left with difficulty, there were a lot of bombs dropping above our
heads," he said. Five or six houses in the village were destroyed and several
neighbors were killed, he said.
For many in Lebanon, particularly those living in the Bekaa Valley in the
east, Syria appeared to be the quickest route to safety. Israeli strikes across
the country this week have wounded more than 2,000.
Many of the Lebanese arriving at the border refused to speak to journalists
or would not give their full names because of the sensitivity of the situation.
One woman from the town of Harouf in southern Lebanon, who gave her family
name, Matouk, said she had come with her brother's wife, who is Syrian, to stay
with in-laws.
Several families near where they lived were killed, she said, and she was
worried about her father and siblings who she had left behind.
While the war in Syria is ongoing, active fighting has long been frozen in
much of the country. Lebanese citizens, who can cross the border without a
visa, regularly visit Damascus. And renting an apartment is significantly
cheaper in Syria than in Lebanon. Even before the latest escalation, some
Lebanese had rented in Syria as a Plan B in case they needed to flee.
Apart from those who fled the war, many Syrians come to Lebanon for work or
family reasons, and regularly cross the border.
However, many of those who came as refugees have been reluctant to return
out of fear they could be arrested for real or perceived ties to the opposition
to Syrian President Bashar Assad or forcibly conscripted to the army. If they
leave Lebanon they could also lose their refugee status.
Earlier this week, Assad issued an amnesty for crimes committed before Sept.
22, including those who dodged compulsory military service.
He had issued similar amnesties over the past years, but they largely failed
to convince refugees to return, as have efforts by Lebanese authorities to
organize "voluntary return" trips.
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