Lebanon Planning to Return Syrian Refugees Home without Int’l Guarantees

A view shows an informal camp for Syrian refugees in Qab Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley June 28, 2022. (Reuters)
A view shows an informal camp for Syrian refugees in Qab Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley June 28, 2022. (Reuters)
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Lebanon Planning to Return Syrian Refugees Home without Int’l Guarantees

A view shows an informal camp for Syrian refugees in Qab Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley June 28, 2022. (Reuters)
A view shows an informal camp for Syrian refugees in Qab Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley June 28, 2022. (Reuters)

Lebanon is again trying to return Syrian refugees on its territories back to their war-torn country.

Caretaker Minister of the Displaced Issam Sharafeddine revealed that intense talks are underway with Syria to ensure the “safe and dignified” return of refugees to their home.

The plan enjoys the support of Lebanese President Michel Aoun and his political team, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and Christian leaders, including head of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea.

The plan however, lacks international guarantees that would ensure that the Syrians are protected and enjoy social support once they go back home.

Sharafeddine has discussed the return of refugees with Aoun.

The Syrian state, he revealed, has been receptive of the Lebanese efforts and is ready to provide shelter and the necessary infrastructure and make sure the refugees return to their villages and towns.

Should the plan go ahead, the minister is hoping that some 15,000 refugees would leave Lebanon each month.

The plan is in line with a legal study carried out by Dr. Paul Morcos, president of the JUSTICIA legal firm. The study is based on Lebanese laws and an understanding signed between Lebanon and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It also adheres to international treaties signed by Lebanon.

Sharafeddine said international organizations were still reviewing the refugee plan.

He revealed that he had discussed it with UNHCR representative in Lebanon, Ayaki Ito.

“We agreed on some points, while others require more revision,” said the minister.

The representative expressed concern over the fate of opponents of the Syrian regime. The minister suggested that the opponents would sign a declaration that they would not discuss military affairs in Syria or the Commission could deport them to another country.

Morcos told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Lebanese people are unanimous in supporting the return of Syrian refugees to their homes.

Lebanon cannot support the burden of the 1.8 million Syrians it is harboring, he added.

He cited a UNHCR memo that says countries have the legal right to expel people it believes no longer need international protection and that their countries of origin have a duty in repatriating them.

Their return must be humane and dignified and their rights must be fully respected, he added.

Morcos said the Lebanese plan takes into account refugee concerns that they may be forcefully returned home. He added that his study legally obligates Lebanese authorities to grant any refugee enough time to object against their deportation and provide the justifications for it.

Former Minister of the Displaced Maeen al-Merehbi criticized the new deportation plan, saying it was “doomed to fail.”

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he noted that Syrians from the Homs countryside, al-Qusayr, al-Qalamoun and other areas bordering Lebanon are barred from returning home.

Refugees from those regions are under constant pressure to sell their properties as part of the forced displacement and demographic change in those areas.

“The best way to facilitate the return of Syrians to their country starts with putting an end to oppression practiced by Bashar Assad’s gangs against the returning refugees,” he stressed.

He cited how returning refugees are often victims of abduction, terrorized, killed and those eligible, are forced to enlist in the military.

The return of refugees is constantly tied to a political solution in Syria that is beyond reach.

Merehbi recalled a past Russian initiative to return the displaced, which he said turned out to be a “media ploy to garner Arab and international support to rebuild Syria, when in fact the Russians were the real partners in the displacement of the Syrian people.”

He criticized caretaker Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati for joining the plan to return the refugees home, saying he is “handing over the victims to the butcher and will be responsible for the lives that will be lost once they go back.”



Israeli Fire Kills 30 in Gaza, Medics Say, as Attention Shifts to Iran 

Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
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Israeli Fire Kills 30 in Gaza, Medics Say, as Attention Shifts to Iran 

Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)

Israeli gunfire and strikes killed at least 30 people across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, local health authorities said, as some Palestinians there said their plight was being forgotten as attention shifted to the air war between Israel and Iran.

The deaths included the latest in near daily killings of Palestinians seeking aid in the three weeks since Israel partially lifted a total blockade on Gaza that it had imposed for almost three months.

Medics said separate airstrikes on homes in the Maghazi refugee camp and Zeitoun neighborhood in central and northern Gaza killed at least 14 people, while five others were killed in an airstrike on a tent encampment in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Eleven others were killed in Israeli fire at crowds of displaced Palestinians awaiting aid trucks brought in by the United Nations along the Salahuddin road in central Gaza, medics said.

The Israel army said it was looking into the reported deaths of people waiting for food. Regarding the other strikes, it said it was "operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities" and "feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm."

On Tuesday, Gaza's health ministry said 397 Palestinians among those trying to get food aid had been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since aid deliveries restarted in late May.

Some in Gaza expressed concern that the latest escalations in the war between Israel and Hamas that began in October 2023 would be overlooked as the focus moved to Israel's five-day-old conflict with Iran.

"People are being slaughtered in Gaza, day and night, but attention has shifted to the Iran-Israel war. There is little news about Gaza these days," said Adel, a resident of Gaza City.

"Whoever doesn't die from Israeli bombs dies from hunger. People risk their lives every day to get food, and they also get killed and their blood smears the sacks of flour they thought they had won," he told Reuters via a chat app.

'FORGOTTEN'

Israel has been channeling much of the aid it is now allowing into Gaza through a new US- and Israeli-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.

It has said it will continue to allow aid into Gaza, home to more than 2 million people, while ensuring aid doesn't get into the hands of Hamas. Hamas denies seizing aid, saying Israel uses hunger as a weapon against the population in Gaza.

The Gaza war was triggered when Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli allies.

US ally Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, displaced almost all the territory's residents, and caused a severe hunger crisis.

The assault has led to accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.

Palestinians in Gaza have been closely following Israel's air war with Iran, long a major supporter of Hamas.

"We are maybe happy to see Israel suffer from Iranian rockets, but at the end of the day, one more day in this war costs the lives of tens of innocent people," said 47-year-old Shaban Abed, a father of five from northern Gaza.

"We just hope that a comprehensive solution could be reached to end the war in Gaza, too. We are being forgotten," he said.