Tens of thousands of Syrians are fleeing Israeli bombs in Lebanon to return to their home country. The journey is long, dangerous, and increasingly expensive. DW correspondent Omar Albam reports from Idlib, where new arrivals have ended up in refugee camps.
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00:00Slowly, Fawzia enters a tent she barely knows, in this camp north of Idlib.
00:06She's back in Syria after being forced to uproot her life a second time.
00:11Fawzia fled the conflict in Lebanon to come here, an area governed by the Syrian opposition.
00:16She says she lost her identification papers on the journey, a trip that cost her hundreds
00:21of dollars paid to smugglers.
00:28We fled Syria because of the bombing, and then the Israeli bombing came to us, so we
00:34returned and fled here.
00:36We prefer to sit here in a tent for fear of sitting there in Lebanon.
00:41They bombed indiscriminately.
00:43I stayed in Lebanon for 13 years and when the Israeli bombing came, we left with the
00:48rest of the displaced from Lebanon.
00:54The smuggler came and took us through rough roads and wilderness on a journey that lasted
00:59about two weeks.
01:03The UN says more than 3,000 people have fled to north-western Syria since Israel increased
01:09its attacks in Lebanon last month.
01:13Others are still waiting to make the voyage.
01:17The journey is long and difficult, with Syria's various government-aligned and rebel forces
01:23all charging those fleeing to cross the areas under their control.
01:31Fawzia is trying to adapt in her new home, with the help of some necessities provided
01:36by relatives living in the camp for years already.
01:40Half of my family is here, and the other half is there in Lebanon.
01:47They're moving from place to place.
01:50For 14 years we have been living in agony, carrying our belongings and leaving in search
01:56of safety.
01:59We have nothing.
02:02We left our home in Syria and fled to Lebanon, and now we have left our homes in Lebanon
02:07and fled again.
02:09With a precious store of medications, Fawzia is trying to make the best of her difficult
02:13circumstances.
02:14After the repeated misery of flight and displacement, she fears she may not have much time left
02:19to rebuild what war and crises have stolen from her.