Clashes Expected to Return to De-Escalation Zones in Idlib

FILE PHOTO: A man watches as smoke rises after what activists said was an airstrike on Atimah, Idlib province March 8, 2015. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A man watches as smoke rises after what activists said was an airstrike on Atimah, Idlib province March 8, 2015. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah/File Photo
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Clashes Expected to Return to De-Escalation Zones in Idlib

FILE PHOTO: A man watches as smoke rises after what activists said was an airstrike on Atimah, Idlib province March 8, 2015. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A man watches as smoke rises after what activists said was an airstrike on Atimah, Idlib province March 8, 2015. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah/File Photo

Recent military developments in southern Idlib suggest that clashes will renew between Syria’s regime forces backed by Iranian proxy militias and Syrian opposition factions.

This comes as the Syrian regime continues to send reinforcements to the area.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on regime forces dispatching new military reinforcements to their positions in Idlib’s rural areas. Buses carrying soldiers had arrived to Jabal al-Zawiya area in southern Idlib after they were relocated from the Hama countryside.

The spokesperson of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) military wing, Abu Khaled al-Shami, in an interview with the HTS-linked news agency, has expected that the Syrian regime forces, supported by Russia, would begin military action at Jabal al-Zawiya soon.

He added that the HTS is watching Jabal al-Zawiya, amid the mobilization of the regime forces and Russia on the outskirts of Jabal al-Arbaeen, Saraqib and the Kabana fronts in the northern countryside of Lattakia.

Activists in Idlib said they documented over 50 ceasefire violations last week committed by regime forces and Iranian militias. These violations, according to the activists, targeted inhabited neighborhoods and included rocket shelling of areas in southern Idlib.

The shelling, according to activists, has resulted in the displacement of over 1,000 families who were forced to flee to near-border camps and safer areas in northern Idlib.



Syrian Returns from Lebanon to Start under UN-backed Plan

FILE PHOTO: A Syrian refugee walks near tents, at an informal settlement, in Al-Marj, in Bekaa, Lebanon April 5, 2023. REUTERS/Emilie Madi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Syrian refugee walks near tents, at an informal settlement, in Al-Marj, in Bekaa, Lebanon April 5, 2023. REUTERS/Emilie Madi/File Photo
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Syrian Returns from Lebanon to Start under UN-backed Plan

FILE PHOTO: A Syrian refugee walks near tents, at an informal settlement, in Al-Marj, in Bekaa, Lebanon April 5, 2023. REUTERS/Emilie Madi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Syrian refugee walks near tents, at an informal settlement, in Al-Marj, in Bekaa, Lebanon April 5, 2023. REUTERS/Emilie Madi/File Photo

Thousands of Syrian refugees are set to return from Lebanon this week under the first, UN-backed plan providing financial incentives, after Syria's new rulers said all citizens were welcome home despite deep war damage and security concerns.

Returning Syrians will be provided with $100 each in Lebanon and $400 per family upon arrival in Syria, Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Haneen Sayed said. Transport is also covered and fees have been waived by border authorities, she said.

"I think it's a good and important start. We have discussed and are coordinating this with our Syrian counterparts and I think the numbers will increase in the coming weeks," Sayed told Reuters. A Syrian interior ministry spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

More than 6 million Syrians fled as refugees after conflict broke out in Syria in 2011, with most heading to Türkiye, Lebanon and Jordan. Lebanon has the highest concentration of refugees per capita in the world, hosting about 1.5 million Syrians among a population of about 4 million Lebanese.

Some 11,000 have registered to return from Lebanon in the first week, and the government targets between 200,000 and 400,000 returns this year under the plan, Sayed said.

The Lebanese government is focused on informal tented settlements in the country, where some 200,000 refugees live, she added, and may provide Syrian breadwinners who stay in Lebanon with work permits for sectors such as agriculture and construction if their families return to Syria.

UN agencies previously viewed Syria as unsafe for large-scale returns due to uncertainty over security and persecution by the government of Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled in December.

That has changed.

Since taking over, the new Syrian government has said all Syrians are welcome home. A UN survey from earlier this year showed nearly 30% of refugees living in Middle Eastern countries wanted to go back, up from 2% when Assad was in power.

"While the situation in Syria continues to rapidly evolve, (UN refugee agency) UNHCR considers the current context a positive opportunity for larger numbers of Syrian refugees to return home, or to begin considering return in a realistic and durable way," Ivo Freijsen, UNHCR Representative in Lebanon, told Reuters.

As of the end of June 2025, UNHCR estimated that over 628,000 Syrians had crossed back to Syria via neighboring countries since 8 December 2024, including 191,000 via Lebanon.