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‘Miniature Syria’ Takes Shape in Northern Lebanon without Fears over Demographic Changes

Syrian and refugee women at a school in Wadi Khaled in northern Lebanon. (Reuters)
Syrian and refugee women at a school in Wadi Khaled in northern Lebanon. (Reuters)
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‘Miniature Syria’ Takes Shape in Northern Lebanon without Fears over Demographic Changes

Syrian and refugee women at a school in Wadi Khaled in northern Lebanon. (Reuters)
Syrian and refugee women at a school in Wadi Khaled in northern Lebanon. (Reuters)

Lebanon’s northern region of Wadi Khaled has for years hosted some 75,000 Syrian refugees, the majority of whom hail from the nearby Homs province.

It therefore may not seem strange that a neighborhood in the Lebanese region would transform into a “mini Syria” after some 7,000 meters of the area was purchased by the Syrian Hamadeh family. The quarter now hosts hundreds of Syrians.

Even though the clashes in Homs ended in 2014, the locals refuse to return to their homes because the region is now under the control of the Syrian regime and Lebanon’s “Hezbollah” party and the overwhelming majority of those who fled their homes are from the Syrian opposition.

The refugees in Wadi Khaled have not greatly affected the demographics in the area, contrary to what has taken place in several Lebanese towns and villages. The locals in Wadi Khaled chose to embrace the refugees from the very moment they arrived in 2012.

They opened up their schools and homes and completely refused the idea of setting up encampments for them. This has led to the settlement of some 75,000 Syrians in rooms that they originally stayed in for free. Eventually, they started to rent these rooms and later even purchased them.

The land that Syrians buy in Wadi Khaled is not registered in official records, only the local notary, municipal chief or witnesses can prove their ownership.

Some locals in Wadi Khaled have voiced their concern over Syrians buying homes and land in the area because they believe that the new owners would now never entertain the idea of returning to their country even if the war there was over.

Head of the federation of Wadi Khaled municipalities Fadi al-Asaad told Asharq Al-Awsat that there were now a huge number of Syrian landowners in the region.

“This may directly affect the possibility of their return to their country,” he remarked, while also noting that several Lebanese also own land in the adjacent Syrian territory.

He predicted however that the refugees may eventually return home, but not as soon as a settlement in Syria is reached due to the “certain characteristics” that Homs has.

Head of the Wadi Khaled municipality, Noureddine al-Ahmed, appeared more optimistic.

There are no fears over the Syrian refugees’ stay in Lebanese towns, he told Asharq Al-Awsat, while adding that only some 40 families have purchased property in the area. These families have relatives in the region, such as the Hamadeh family that has relatives from its Lebanese namesake.

Asaad and Ahmed agree that there are pros and cons to the Syrian displacement to Wadi Khaled.

Wadi Khaled is located in Akkar, which up until recently, remained neglected by the state and only received much needed attention from donors and humanitarian organizations.

Asaad said: “Due to the large number of Syrian refugees, a sewage system was established in the area. We were only able to set it up because it was funded by donors”

In addition, a water pipeline system was also set up and it now covers 75 percent of the region. Local authorities were unable to establish these systems in the past due to their high costs.

Ahmed said that the economy in Wadi Khaled was boosted with the arrival of the refugees, adding however that the locals’ marriage to Syrians has been a negative side effect of the displacement.

The towns of al-Hisha, al-Aamayer and al-Rama host the largest number of refugees in Wadi Khaled, which consists of over 20 towns.

An activist in the region, schoolteacher Ahmed al-Sayyed said that from the very moment that the first wave of refugees arrived in the area, schools dedicated themselves to teaching the Syrian children.

Morning classes were offered to Lebanese students, while night ones were offered to the some 4,000 Syrian students.

Ahmed told Asharq Al-Awsat that some schools teach 500 to 600 students, adding that as opposed to other Lebanese areas, the Syrians have been smoothly accommodated in Wadi Khaled society due to the close ties and similar customs shared between the people in the region.

“It is true that some 100 Syrian families bought land in Wadi Khaled and we have asked the municipality and concerned agencies to intervene to end this phenomenon, but we have no fears over their living among us,” he said.

He said that the family ties bind them together and there are no fears over changing demographics “because these refugees share our sect and beliefs.”

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Features

Israeli Settler Outpost Becomes a Settlement within a Month

Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, center, strides through the newly-legalized Jewish settlement of Yatziv, adjacent to the Palestinian town of Beit Sahour, in the West Bank, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP)
Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, center, strides through the newly-legalized Jewish settlement of Yatziv, adjacent to the Palestinian town of Beit Sahour, in the West Bank, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP)
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Israeli Settler Outpost Becomes a Settlement within a Month

Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, center, strides through the newly-legalized Jewish settlement of Yatziv, adjacent to the Palestinian town of Beit Sahour, in the West Bank, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP)
Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, center, strides through the newly-legalized Jewish settlement of Yatziv, adjacent to the Palestinian town of Beit Sahour, in the West Bank, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP)

Celebratory music blasting from loudspeakers mixed with the sounds of construction, almost drowning out calls to prayer from a mosque in the Palestinian town across this West Bank valley.

Orthodox Jewish women wearing colorful head coverings and with babies on their hips, shared platters of fresh vegetables as soldiers encircled the hilltop, keeping guard.

The scene Monday reflected the culmination of Israeli settlers’ long campaign to turn this site overlooking the Palestinian town of Beit Sahour into a settlement. Over the years they fended off plans to build a hospital for Palestinian children on the land, always holding to the hope it would one day become theirs.

That moment is now, they say.

Smotrich goes on settlement spree

After two decades of efforts, it took just a month for their new settlement, called “Yatziv,” to go from an unauthorized outpost of a few mobile homes to a fully recognized settlement. Fittingly, the new settlement's name means “stable” in Hebrew.

“We are standing stable here in Israel,” Finance Minister and settler leader Bezalel Smotrich told The Associated Press at Monday’s inauguration ceremony. “We’re going to be here forever. We will never establish a Palestinian state here.”

With leaders like Smotrich holding key positions in Israel’s government and establishing close ties with the Trump administration, settlers are feeling the wind at their backs.

Smotrich, who has been in charge of Israeli settlement policy for the past three years, has overseen an aggressive construction and expansion binge aimed at dismantling any remaining hopes of establishing a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank.

While most of the world considers the settlements illegal, their impact on the ground is clear, with Palestinians saying the ever-expanding construction hems them in and makes it nearly impossible to establish a viable independent state. The Palestinians seek the West Bank, captured by Israel in 1967, as part of a future state.

Emboldened

Settlers had long set their sights on the hilltop, thanks to its position in a line of settlements surrounding Jerusalem and because they said it was significant to Jewish history. But they put up the boxy prefab homes in November because days earlier, Palestinian attackers had stabbed an Israeli to death at a nearby junction.

The attack created an impetus to justify the settlement, settlement council chair, Yaron Rosenthal, told the AP. With the election of Israel’s far-right government in late 2022, Trump’s return to office last year and the November attack, conditions were ripe for settlers to make their move, Rosenthal said.

“We understood that there was an opportunity,” he said. “But we didn’t know it would happen so quickly.”

“Now there is the right political constellation for this to happen."

Smotrich announced approval of the outpost, along with 18 others, on Dec. 21. That capped 20 years of effort, said Nadia Matar, a settler activist.

“Shdema was nearly lost to us,” said Matar, using the name of an Israeli military base at the site. “What prevented that outcome was perseverance.”

Back in 2006, settlers were infuriated upon hearing that Israel's government was in talks with the US to build a Palestinian children's hospital on the land, said Hagit Ofran, a director at Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog group, especially as the US Agency for International Development was funding a “peace park” at the base of the hill.

The mayor of Beit Sahour urged the US Consulate to pressure Israel to begin hospital construction, while settlers began demonstrations at the site calling on Israel to quash the project, according to consulate files obtained through WikiLeaks.

It was “interesting” that settlers had “no religious, legal, or ... security claim to that land,” wrote consulate staffer Matt Fuller at the time, in an email he shared with the AP. "They just don’t want the Palestinians to have it — and for a hospital no less — a hospital that would mean fewer permits for entry to Jerusalem for treatment.”

The hospital was never built. The site was converted into a military base after the Netanyahu government came to power in 2009. From there, settlers quickly established a foothold by creating a makeshift cultural center at the site, putting on lectures, readings and exhibits.

Speaking to the AP, Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister at the time the hospital was under discussion, said that was the tipping point.

“Once it is military installation, it is easier than to change its status into a new outpost, a new settlement and so on,” he said.

Olmert said Netanyahu — who has served as prime minister nearly uninterrupted since then — was “committed to entirely different political directions from the ones that I had,” he said. “They didn’t think about cooperation with the Palestinians.”

Palestinians say the land is theirs

The continued legalization of settlements and spiking settler violence — which rose by 27% in 2025, according to Israel’s military — have cemented a fearful status quo for West Bank Palestinians.

The land now home to Yatziv was originally owned by Palestinians from Beit Sahour, said the town’s mayor, Elias Isseid.

“These lands have been owned by families from Beit Sahour since ancient times,” he said.

Isseid worries more land loss is to come. Yatziv is the latest in a line of Israeli settlements to pop up around Beit Sahour, all of which are connected by a main highway that runs to Jerusalem without entering Palestinian villages. The new settlement “poses a great danger to our children, our families," he said.

Features

Respiratory Virus Claims Lives in Gaza amid Limited Capacity for Testing

A Palestinian man carries the body of his three-month-old daughter on Tuesday after she died from the cold in Gaza City. (AFP)
A Palestinian man carries the body of his three-month-old daughter on Tuesday after she died from the cold in Gaza City. (AFP)
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Respiratory Virus Claims Lives in Gaza amid Limited Capacity for Testing

A Palestinian man carries the body of his three-month-old daughter on Tuesday after she died from the cold in Gaza City. (AFP)
A Palestinian man carries the body of his three-month-old daughter on Tuesday after she died from the cold in Gaza City. (AFP)

Gaza resident Yusra al-Hajjar, 32, went through harrowing moments after she was shocked by a sharp rise in the temperature of her five-month-old infant, Nidal, prompting her to rush him to a clinic at the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City as his condition worsened.

Initial medical examinations failed to determine the exact cause of the infant’s illness, forcing the medical team to resort to basic measures such as intravenous fluids and fever-reducing medication in an attempt to control the symptoms.

The treatment was temporarily successful, and the baby’s condition improved after several hours.

“We left the clinic in a better condition, but less than a day later, we brought him back after a new deterioration,” al-Hajjar told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“As of this morning, Tuesday, five days have passed since my baby fell ill. I am still trying basic methods, such as cooling his forehead with cold water and giving him some medication to reduce the fever and stop the vomiting and weakness, while doctors have been unable to determine the cause,” she added.

The infant’s case is not the only one. Residents of Gaza have been struggling in recent weeks with what medical officials describe as a widespread outbreak of identical symptoms, particularly among the elderly and children, according to Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex.

Abu Salmiya said that for nearly a month, new deaths have been recorded on an almost daily basis due to the spread of what he described as a dangerous and deadly virus.

He said the virus causes severe pneumonia, leading to fatalities primarily among vulnerable patients with weakened immune systems, and secondarily among individuals with stronger immunity, including some young people whose deaths were recorded in recent days.

No capacity for testing

Abu Salmiya said Gaza’s health system lacks even the most basic laboratory capabilities needed to identify the virus, suggesting it could be a new COVID variant spreading in the world.

Earlier on Tuesday, a seven-month-old infant, Shaza Abu Jarrad, died due to extreme cold and a lack of adequate shelter and heating, raising the number of child deaths from similar conditions to about 10.

Abu Salmiya said the current cold weather has fueled the spread of the virus, contributing to a high number of deaths amid the harsh living conditions in Gaza following the Israeli war.

He said there is a direct link between the war and weakened immunity among Gaza’s population, who have endured repeated bouts of hunger, alongside water contamination.

He added that this comes amid severe shortages of medicines and medical supplies, leaving health authorities unable to mount an effective and rapid response to the current health crisis.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, said in a post on X that despite the collapse of Gaza’s health system, it continues to provide primary health care to thousands of people every day, but faces an acute shortage of medicines.

UNRWA accused Israel of preventing its aid supplies stuck in warehouses in Jordan and Egypt from entering Gaza since March 2 last year, stressing the urgent need to allow its assistance into the territory.

It said harsh winter conditions are compounding the suffering of families in Gaza who have been exhausted by war and repeated displacement, calling for large-scale access for humanitarian aid.

Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defense, warned of a rise in deaths, particularly among young children, due to the severe cold wave coinciding with the deterioration of humanitarian conditions in the enclave.

He said field and health conditions are extremely harsh, especially for infants, the sick, and the elderly, as most families live in dilapidated tents that offer little protection from the cold, rain, and other environmental conditions.

Features

Khartoum Markets Back to Life but 'Nothing Like Before'

Men walk along a street past destroyed high-rise building, as efforts to restore the city's infrastructure resumes after nearly three years of devastation caused by war, in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on January 17, 2025. (AFP)
Men walk along a street past destroyed high-rise building, as efforts to restore the city's infrastructure resumes after nearly three years of devastation caused by war, in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on January 17, 2025. (AFP)
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Khartoum Markets Back to Life but 'Nothing Like Before'

Men walk along a street past destroyed high-rise building, as efforts to restore the city's infrastructure resumes after nearly three years of devastation caused by war, in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on January 17, 2025. (AFP)
Men walk along a street past destroyed high-rise building, as efforts to restore the city's infrastructure resumes after nearly three years of devastation caused by war, in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on January 17, 2025. (AFP)

The hustle and bustle of buyers and sellers has returned to Khartoum's central market, but "it's nothing like before," fruit vendor Hashim Mohamed told AFP, streets away from where war first broke out nearly three years ago.

On April 15, 2023, central Khartoum awoke to battles between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who had been allies since 2021, when they ousted civilians from a short-lived transitional government.

Their war has since killed tens of thousands and displaced millions. In greater Khartoum alone, nearly 4 million people -- around half the population -- fled the city when the RSF took over.

Hashim Mohamed did not.

"I had to work discreetly, because there were regular attacks" on businesses, said the fruit seller, who has worked in the sprawling market for 50 years.

Like him, those who stayed in the city report living in constant fear of assaults and robberies from fighters roaming the streets.

Last March, army forces led an offensive through the capital, pushing paramilitary fighters out and revealing the vast looting and destruction left behind.

"The market's not what it used to be, but it's much better than when the RSF was here," said market vendor Adam Haddad, resting in the shade of an awning.

In the market's narrow, dusty alleyways, fruits and vegetables are piled high, on makeshift stalls or tarps spread on the ground.

- Two jobs to survive -

Khartoum, where entire neighborhoods were once under siege, is no longer threatened by the mass starvation that stalks battlefield cities and displacement camps elsewhere in Sudan.

But with the economy a shambles, a good living is still hard to provide.

"People complain about prices, they say it's too expensive. You can find everything, but the costs keep going up: supplies, labor, transportation," said Mohamed.

Sudan has known only triple-digit annual inflation for years. Figures for 2024 stood at 151 percent -- down from a 2021 peak of 358.

The currency has also collapsed, going from trading at 570 Sudanese pounds to the US dollar before the war to 3,500 in 2026, according to the black market rate.

One Sudanese teacher, who only a few years ago could provide comfortably for his two children, told AFP he could no longer pay his rent with a monthly salary of 250,000 Sudanese pounds ($71).

To feed his family, pay for school, and cover healthcare, he "works in the market or anywhere" on his days off.

"You have to have another job to pay for the bare minimum of basic needs," he said, asking for anonymity to protect his privacy.

For Adam Haddad, the road to recovery will be a long one.

"We don't have enough resources or workers or liquidity going through the market," he said, adding that reliable electricity was still a problem.

"The government is striving to restore everything, and God willing, in the near future, the power will return and Khartoum will become what it once was."