Thousands of Syrians living in Lebanon have fled to their home country in recent days after Lebanon was dragged back into conflict, with Israeli airstrikes bombarding several cities.
Earlier this week, Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, fired rockets and launched drones toward Israel, in what it said was retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel responded with a barrage of airstrikes on Beirut and across more than 50 villages in southern and eastern Lebanon, killing dozens of people, according to authorities.
Syrian officials said that at least 40,000 Syrians had returned to the country from Lebanon over the past four days.
At the Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria on Wednesday, suitcases and other belongings were tied to the roofs of vehicles heading back — suggesting that some of the returns may be permanent.
Among them was Kheder Shaabo, 22. He was at home in Bint Jbeil, a town in southern Lebanon, when his building was hit in an Israeli airstrike at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, he said. The windows shattered and glass shards cut his face.
“I felt great fear and I ran,” he said in an interview with The New York Times at the border. One side of his face and neck was visibly injured. “I saw the neighbors lying on the ground. In that moment I decided to return. I don’t have a house, but I’m going back to my family.”
Next to him stood his brother, who was also injured in the strike. His head was wrapped with bandages and his face was also scarred.
The pair came to Lebanon five years ago to work amid the economic crisis in Syria that resulted from the nearly 14-year civil war there.
Now, Mr. Shaabo said, they plan to return to their hometown, Aleppo, and try to rebuild their lives.
Mr. Shaabo had remained in Lebanon during the previouswar that broke out in 2024 between Hezbollah and Israel. But this time, he said, staying felt too dangerous.
At one point during the war in Lebanon in 2024, Amani Mubarak al-Hassan, 26, moved back to Syria with her three children. But they returned to Lebanon after two months to be with her husband, Ayed al-Hussein, who could not join them in Syria because he was wanted for military conscription by the now ousted Assad regime.
The threat of conscription, and frequent airstrikes, had prompted the family to first move to Lebanon years ago from their home in Syria’s eastern province of Deir Ezzour. They lived in several cities, most recently in Sidon in southern Lebanon where they worked as caretakers of an apartment building.
“I planned to eventually return” to Syria, Mr. Al-Hussein said, “but we said, let’s wait for things to settle down a bit.”
Since the Assad regime was ousted in December 2024, many Syrians who fled the country during its civil war have wanted to return home, but have been waiting for signs that the new government can restore security and economic stability.
With drone and missile attacks now affecting many countries in the Middle East, Syria feels like a safer choice for some, even during its uncertain political transition.
For Ms. Al-Hassan and her husband, who is no longer subject to conscription in Syria, the catalyst was when their neighbor’s building in Sidon was hit in an airstrike this week.
“Is there anything better than one’s own country?” Mr. Al-Hussein said. “As soon as I arrived, I knelt down. I don’t have a house, unfortunately, but I’ll go back to my father’s house and we’ll manage there.”
Muhammad Haj Kadour contributed reporting.
Raja Abdulrahim reports on the Middle East and is based in Jerusalem.
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