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Exclusive - Syrian Refugees Trickle Back to Qusayr under Watchful Eyes of the Regime, Hezbollah

Returnees walk together and hold Syrian flags as they enter the city of Qusayr, Syria July 7, 2019. (Reuters)
Returnees walk together and hold Syrian flags as they enter the city of Qusayr, Syria July 7, 2019. (Reuters)
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Exclusive - Syrian Refugees Trickle Back to Qusayr under Watchful Eyes of the Regime, Hezbollah

Returnees walk together and hold Syrian flags as they enter the city of Qusayr, Syria July 7, 2019. (Reuters)
Returnees walk together and hold Syrian flags as they enter the city of Qusayr, Syria July 7, 2019. (Reuters)

“I want to be buried in my hometown, al-Qusayr,” said a retired school teacher who has been worn down by years of misery and old age that caught up with him soon after he and his family were displaced in from his town in 2012.

The teacher, 65, recently became one of many refugees who returned to Qusayr in recent months. He returned to his home, which was all but destroyed during the Syrian war. All that stands is a single room.

Asked by Asharq Al-Awsat about why he returned knowing that his house was in ruins, he replied: “Living in a tent over property that I own is a thousand times easier than living as a refugee in a rented home.”

“I have spent years in displacement and pray to God that I die in Qusayr,” he added.

Strategic importance

Qusayr lies 35 kilometers west of Homs and 15 kms from the border with Lebanon. The city witnessed in 2013 the first and largest wave of displacement during the Syrian war. At the peak of the unrest only a handful of the 65,000 residents remained in the city. The population is predominantly Sunni with Christian, Alawite and Shiite minorities.

The picture has since changed after the Syrian regime and Lebanese Hezbollah party imposed their control over the city and its countryside.

Qusayr holds strategic importance to Hezbollah because it links the Lebanese Bekaa region to the central Syrian province of Homs. It is accessed through the Jousiyeh crossing that was set up in 1919. Qusayr was also a significant trade hub between Homs and northern Lebanon.

Soon after the regime captured Qusayr from opposition factions, its ally, Hezbollah set up major centers throughout the roads connecting Homs to Lebanon. Qusayr was inaccessible except to its residents, who were still living there. After the reopening of the Jousiyeh crossing in 2017, travelers heading to Lebanon were allowed to pass through the area, local sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Once Jousiyeh was reopened, pro-regime residents, mainly Alawites, Shiites and Christians, were allowed to return. Some 8,000 people have gradually returned between 2013 and 2017. Up until July this year, Sunnis were barred from returning. Even then, only those not suspected of anti-regime activity were allowed to come back.

Destruction

The first batch of refugees returned to Qusayr’s Hezbollah-held western countryside in July. Exposing who really controls the region, the some 1,000 returnees were seen waving the Hezbollah flag, far outnumbering official Syrian flags and images of regime leader Bashar Assad. The second batch, of some 5,000 people, arrived in October. This time, the majority waved regime flags and Assad posters. Since 2013, some 14,000 residents have returned to what was left of their homes.

With very limited means, they struggled to rebuild Qusayr as they awaited aid from charities, civil and public agencies. The city council was also unable to cope with the massive reconstruction. Neighborhoods that were seized by opposition factions were almost completely destroyed, in contrast to the districts that never escaped the clutches of the regime during clashes with the opposition. Pro-regime residents, Hezbollah and security stations are located in these districts.

Overall, the city lacks the most basic infrastructure. Sewage systems remain mostly inadequate, power cuts are frequent and water is in short supply.

A refugee from Qusayr, currently residing in Lebanon, told Asharq Al-Awsat that prior to the war, people from Homs and nearby Lebanese villages used to flock to Qusayr for their daily needs, education and medical treatments. Bread produced from the city used to be enough to feed all neighboring areas. Smuggling from Lebanon of various goods that were not available in Syria was also active.

This led to the development of close ties between the surrounding areas. These relations rose above sectarian and political interests and Hezbollah was virtually nonexistent in the area.

At the turn of the 21st century, fuel began to be smuggled from Syria to Lebanon through Qusayr. This led to the emergence of fierce outlaws, who were controlled by corrupt figures in the regime’s security apparatus. The situation was exacerbated further with the beginning of the smuggling of drugs from Lebanon to Syria after 2005.

This naturally led to increased school dropouts, higher unemployment, a weakening economy and fragmentation of the traditional social and economic fabric.

Hezbollah control

After the displacement of the people in 2013, Hezbollah seized the region west of the Orontes (Assi) River. The party succeeded in recruiting residents of the region to fight in its ranks against their own fellow Syrians. The party also seized control of all legal and illegal border crossings between Qusayr and Lebanon. The region consequently became the most important drugs smuggling route from Lebanon to Syria and then from Syria to the Mediterranean through Latakia port.

In the city itself, Hezbollah captured several properties and buildings and transformed them into party headquarters, barring their owners from accessing them. The party also seized agricultural fields to grow its cannabis crops, transforming it into a lucrative gang-run business linked to regional networks.

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Takeaways From Israel’s Inconclusive Election

People sit outside the Israeli parliament Knesset in Jerusalem, 28 October 2026. (EPA)
People sit outside the Israeli parliament Knesset in Jerusalem, 28 October 2026. (EPA)
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Takeaways From Israel’s Inconclusive Election

People sit outside the Israeli parliament Knesset in Jerusalem, 28 October 2026. (EPA)
People sit outside the Israeli parliament Knesset in Jerusalem, 28 October 2026. (EPA)

Israelis faced political uncertainty Wednesday after no clear winner appeared to have emerged from a high-turnout election. The path to forming a government is fraught for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main opponent, and another round of elections cannot be ruled out.

The first elections since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack were seen as a pivotal moment in Israel's history, serving both as a referendum on Netanyahu's nearly unbroken 17-year rule and a choice between different visions for the country's future.

The initial results show a deeply divided electorate with multiple fault lines.

Netanyahu lost support but could remain in office. His main opponent, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, would most likely have to partner with Arab-led parties to unseat him, a politically costly move that could alienate other opposition factions.

They could also partner with Netanyahu in a broad-based unity government, but that would be seen as a major betrayal by many of their voters after they put his ouster at the heart of their campaigns.

Final, official results are expected on Thursday or Friday, but there will likely be weeks of negotiations before a prime minister is declared — or new elections are called.

Here are the main takeaways:

Netanyahu is down but not out

Initial results show Netanyahu's religious and ultranationalist coalition falling short of a parliamentary majority of 61 seats, after reaching a peak of 68 seats in the previous parliament. Netanyahu's right-wing Likud also appears to have been whittled down from 32 seats to around 27.

That could reflect growing disillusionment with his long rule, anger at his handling of the Oct. 7 attacks and their aftermath, and his support for the exemption of ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service, an intensely divisive issue as the country is embroiled in multiple wars.

But Likud still appears to have emerged as the largest party, putting Netanyahu in the best position to be tasked first with forming a government.

He would need support from at least one opposition party, or several defectors from that side, to rule. Most have promised not to partner with Netanyahu, but the Israeli leader, a savvy political operator, could offer them concessions. He is also likely to argue that a broad-based government under his leadership is preferable to one relying on Arab-led parties — or another round of elections.

He can already claim a victory of sorts by having retained much of his support even after the deadliest security breakdown in Israel's history unfolded on his watch.

Netanyahu “manages to overcome situations that I can’t see anyone else managing to overcome,” said Tamar Hermann, senior research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank. “Politically, he is a magician.”

The opposition faces an uphill battle

Initial results indicate that parties opposed to Netanyahu won a parliamentary majority. But they include Arab-led factions that have long been politically sidelined, and which some Jewish-led parties have refused to partner with.

In the face of “a politics of supremacy, racism and exclusion, we are offering a totally different alternative,” Yousef Jabareen, the head of the Arab Joint List, said on X. “The change comes through Jewish-Arab partnership, a true and equal partnership. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Only one Arab party has ever joined an Israeli governing coalition, in 2021, and that government only lasted about 18 months. The level of distrust is far higher after Oct. 7 and the resulting wars. Netanyahu is likely to exploit that by casting any partnership with Arab-led parties as illegitimate or treasonous.

Without the Arabs, Eisenkot and his Jewish allies have no clear path to forming a coalition to unseat Netanyahu, and another round of elections might further weaken their hand.

Tens of thousands of Israelis who flew in for this election may not return for another one, and Netanyahu would stay on as caretaker prime minister, giving him a platform to attack his opponents and try to expand his own coalition.

That leaves the prospect of forming a government with Netanyahu — after a campaign in which they blamed him for the failures surrounding the Oct. 7 attack, portrayed him as a threat to Israel's democratic institutions and highlighted his ongoing corruption trial.

Arab parties' success could make it harder to partner with them

The Arab-led parties represent Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, who make up about 20% of the country’s population. Descendants of Palestinians who remained in Israel after its creation in 1948, they are entitled to vote and serve in parliament.

While they hold senior roles in many sectors of Israeli society, they face discrimination, and many Jewish Israelis view them with suspicion because of their general support for the Palestinian cause.

Surging Arab turnout, driven in part by disgust at Netanyahu's far-right allies, may have delivered a historic victory for Arab-led parties, who could win around 19 seats in the 120-member Knesset.

That would give them significant power in any partnership with Eisenkot — potentially making such an alliance less likely. The opposition might also have to partner with hard-line Arab factions that are even more widely rejected among Jewish Israelis.

The results do little to assuage Israel's internal divisions

The elections were an inflection point for Israel after three years of war. But they also highlighted the same divisions that have roiled the country for decades.

Netanyahu's coalition, made up of ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties, supported strengthening Israel's Jewish character. It pushed for more settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and allowed for military draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews. It also attempted to push through an overhaul of the country's judiciary in 2023 that drew mass protests.

Eisenkot's camp promoted a vision where Israel's Jewish character lives in harmony with its liberal democratic ideals. It promised honest leadership and accountability for Israel's Oct. 7 failures, vowed to bolster the judiciary and end the military draft exemptions. They also promised to fix Israel's international standing, which has deteriorated because of the Gaza war and settler violence in the West Bank.

The apparently stalemated results suggest Israel's divisions are deeper than ever.

Features

‘Nobody Heard us’ – Why Gen Z Are Leading Protests Across Europe

People celebrate the victory of the Student List at parliamentary election after Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat, at Slavija Square in Belgrade, Serbia, October 26, 2026. (Reuters)
People celebrate the victory of the Student List at parliamentary election after Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat, at Slavija Square in Belgrade, Serbia, October 26, 2026. (Reuters)
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‘Nobody Heard us’ – Why Gen Z Are Leading Protests Across Europe

People celebrate the victory of the Student List at parliamentary election after Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat, at Slavija Square in Belgrade, Serbia, October 26, 2026. (Reuters)
People celebrate the victory of the Student List at parliamentary election after Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat, at Slavija Square in Belgrade, Serbia, October 26, 2026. (Reuters)

Maya Gourdel, a 19-year-old student in Brussels, sits at a desk writing slogans against those running her country: “If we burn, you burn with us!” The slogan, taken from the 2012 film "The Hunger Games" that has been adopted as a symbol by many youth movements globally, reflects the anger, frustration and desire for change driving Gen Z-led protests around Europe.

From the suburbs of Paris to the squares of Belgrade, thousands have taken to the streets.

The demands are various but often overlapping – frustrations with shabby schooling facilities, perceived lack of economic opportunity, cost of living, corruption, housing and a sense of not being listened to. At times those protests triggered violence – with thousands of shops in France alone being damaged or looted in recent weeks – and police firing stun grenades and water cannons.

This weekend they also brought real change – student-led protests culminated in the toppling in an election of Serbia’s long-time leader Aleksandar Vucic after nearly two years of demonstrations against perceived corruption and creeping authoritarianism.

“Waking up, the first thing we felt was certainly a sense of relief and freedom," said student protester Stasa Piletic. "Personally, I feel a sense of victory. I feel that we finally moved from protests to responsibility."

‘AN EXPLOSION OF RAGE’

Chiara, a 21-year-old student ‌in protest-hit Milan, believes “it's ‌vital to take part in people's spontaneous movements born from an explosion of rage that made collective ‌action possible.”

"I ⁠think the worst ⁠damage this ruling class has done to my generation is stealing even the ability to imagine a future, to dream," she said.

She said Italian students were confronting a reality of schools without enough teachers and crumbling buildings.

“And all of this with the prospect of an underpaid job which we didn't qualify for and the prospect of living in a tiny, overpriced house, probably away from our city, which we didn't want to live in."

Protests led by Gen Z have caused ructions globally as the generation born roughly between 1997 and 2012 found its voice, from Bangladesh in 2024 and Nepal in 2025, to India this year. Now Europe has become a focal point.

Rising prices and the cost of living are a concern for 40% of 16-30-year-olds, according to a European Union survey published in 2025.

Among the 92.7 million people in the EU who faced ⁠the risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2025, the highest risk was recorded for young adults aged 18-24 years, ‌at 26.3%, while the lowest was recorded for adults aged 65 years or over, at 18.8%.

Younger ‌people are also wary of shouldering the financial burden of an older generation that tends to vote in greater numbers. People over 60 in France make up a quarter ‌of the population but own 60% of France's wealth, according to the OFCE think tank.

French pensions are by far the biggest public expense, on track to reach ‌14% of economic output, as the population ages and voters resist raising the retirement age or reducing benefits. That is still less than Greece or Italy, which spend the largest proportion of national income on public pensions among OECD countries, at around 16% of GDP, according to OECD figures in 2025. But it is much more than Australia, Chile, Iceland, Ireland or South Korea, which spent less than 4% of GDP on public pensions, according to the OECD.

‘YOUNG PEOPLE IN EUROPE ARE UNITED’

Bilal Narjissi, a 17-year-old high school student in ‌a suburb north of Paris, has been protesting against “deplorable” conditions and staff shortages at his school. “There used to be rats,” he said.

Students were evacuated last year when a roof collapsed on the courtyard, though no one was hurt, ⁠he said.

Protests showed “that young people in ⁠Europe are united”, he said, adding, "we all agree on one point: that young people are treated like children, far too much, and that they aren't listened to enough.”

A French government report in October said pension spending had risen by 2.5 percentage points of GDP between 2000 and 2023 while that for education had declined 0.5. It also showed 32% of the education ministry’s budget went towards pensions, crowding out money for other areas.

Gourdel, too, has been protesting for better conditions in schools in Belgium.

“We tried to do it passively. Nobody heard us. It's only when people started to burn trash or that kind of stuff that the media and cameras started showing us,” she said.

The protests are still spreading, with a demonstration planned in Germany this weekend over cost of living, inequality, war and the state of schools.

Unrest has also hit Albania, where student-led demonstrations against Prime Minister Edi Rama's government, fueled by anger over perceived corruption, a lack of jobs and poor education standards, engulfed Tirana and spread to other cities.

“Our Prime Minister spent 130 days not listening to us,” said Xyke Kurti, a 19-year-old architecture student.

“If you ask a student in Albania, 'where do you see your future?' Everyone says 'outside this country'," she said, arguing that at home, even if you have talent, someone with "connections is always going to beat you".

Serbia’s student movement did what demonstrators in other European capitals can only dream of.

Now, though, comes the gritty business of governing – something neither the students nor their candidates have any experience of.

Luka Stojakovic, another protester, brushes that aside. "We have seen where people with political experience have brought us."

Features

In Israel, Eisenkot Tries Quiet Appeal to Oust Netanyahu

Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, visits a polling station, on the day of Israel’s national election, in Ofakim, southern Israel, October 27, 2026. (Reuters)
Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, visits a polling station, on the day of Israel’s national election, in Ofakim, southern Israel, October 27, 2026. (Reuters)
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In Israel, Eisenkot Tries Quiet Appeal to Oust Netanyahu

Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, visits a polling station, on the day of Israel’s national election, in Ofakim, southern Israel, October 27, 2026. (Reuters)
Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, visits a polling station, on the day of Israel’s national election, in Ofakim, southern Israel, October 27, 2026. (Reuters)

Gadi Eisenkot, the man who could unseat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, almost always dresses in black, speaks halting English and tends to respond in interviews with bullet-point lists, a reflection of the military culture that shaped him.

For some voters in Tuesday's general election, the 66-year-old's lack of charisma may be one of his greatest assets.

Serious and unassuming, Eisenkot is in many ways the opposite of Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, who has flawless American-accented English and is ever ready with headline-grabbing soundbites on US television or social media.

Eisenkot, the military chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, has vowed to unite Israelis after the divisive tenure of Netanyahu, who has moved the country sharply to the right.

"There is a large camp in Israel whose main goal in the coming election is just for things to be calmer," said Tal Elovits, a researcher at the Molad think tank.

"The middle class," he said, "is looking for someone who will look responsible, boring. I think Eisenkot has that appeal."

Eisenkot, who has been neck and neck with Netanyahu in polls, has promised to try to restore the international image of Israel, badly strained after three years of war in Gaza and violence in the occupied West Bank.

He has vowed to crack down on extremist West Bank settlers who have attacked Palestinians with impunity and recently beat up an American journalist and a French mayor, decrying the incidents as "Jewish terror" abetted by Netanyahu's government.

But the military man is no peacenik. He has even sought to play to the right of Netanyahu by vowing no Palestinian state, replaying clips from an earlier political era in which the long-serving prime minister begrudgingly voiced openness to the idea under US pressure.

Commanding the military during the 2006 war with Hezbollah, Eisenkot devised the so-called "Dahieh doctrine", named after Beirut’s southern suburb, in which Israel vowed massive force against civilian infrastructure in areas populated by the Lebanese group.

Israel has adopted the doctrine again in Gaza, causing destruction that critics say amounts to war crimes, an assertion disputed by Israel.

- Working-class roots -

Eisenkot has garnered broad public sympathy after his son Gal and two nephews were killed fighting in Gaza.

His working-class roots constitute another element of his appeal. He would be the first prime minister who is Sephardic, Jews who trace their recent origins to the Middle East and North Africa.

Unlike Netanyahu, who comes from an elite family and whose father was a prominent professor in the United States, Eisenkot is the son of Moroccan Jews, and grew up on Israel's geographic periphery.

His background came into the spotlight when a senior commentator on the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 television station described Eisenkot as "a monkey" controlled by "Ashkenazi elitists". He was referring to Jews of European descent who have historically dominated Israel's political and economic institutions.

While the term is not necessarily a racial slur in Hebrew and can mean something akin to a "fall guy" taking the blame on behalf of others, the remark drew widespread condemnation from opposition politicians and from Netanyahu himself.

Eisenkot swiftly sought to turn the episode to his advantage.

His campaign erected billboards denouncing discrimination against the Sephardim, and his party accused Netanyahu of sidelining Sephardic members of Likud by limiting their media appearances during the campaign.

- Limited change on security -

In weekend appearances, Eisenkot met religious Jews to whom he defended Israeli control over the West Bank.

"Israeli settlement (of the West Bank) is a value, on condition that it serves the interests of the state of Israel, and it's done according to the law," he told representatives of the Religious Zionist movement on Sunday.

He appeared to be rejecting the establishment of unauthorized settlement outposts, which have fueled a recent rise in violence against Palestinians.

On Gaza, he has vowed to end Hamas rule within 18 months. He recently said this could be achieved either through the implementation of US President Donald Trump's ceasefire plan, which envisages Hamas's gradual disarmament and a transfer of power, or through "creative operations" aimed at destroying the movement's military wing.

Addressing a key source of resentment among Israelis following three years of war, Eisenkot has promised to curb exemptions from military service for religious students.

He promised a "universal national service law" requiring ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arab citizens to perform either military or civil service.

He has sought to appeal to centrist and liberal voters by pledging to "protect judicial independence, the rule of law, minority rights and a free press".

And in his final major rally before Tuesday's vote, he appealed directly to wavering Netanyahu supporters to change their vote.

"Deep down, you too know that Israel cannot go on like this," he said. "Israel needs change."