From displacement to death.. Syrians in Lebanon pay price of war

The renewed war in southern Lebanon has revealed the scale of human losses suffered by Syrian refugees, who once again find themselves facing death while seeking safety and work. According to the latest update issued by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health on 26 May 2026, the number of Syrian casualties since the conflict resumed on 2 March has reached 449 dead and injured, the majority of them women and children.

An Israeli airstrike that targeted, last Friday, a house made up of several small rooms in the Harathiya “Al-Kafr Al-Ahmar” neighborhood on the eastern edge of the town of Adloun in the Zahrani area – Sidon district, highlighted the scale of the humanitarian tragedy experienced by Syrian refugees in southern Lebanon and the Nabatieh region.

According to official data, Syrian casualties have fallen in several towns while they were inside their residences, at their workplaces, or while traveling on roads, amid ongoing military escalation and the widening scope of attacks.

A portion of these refugees belong to families displaced from Syria after the events of 2011, while others left the country following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad government. Despite security risks, large numbers of them have chosen to remain in southern Lebanon for various reasons, most notably the need for Syrian labor in southern areas, particularly in agriculture and construction, as well as relatively better living, health, and educational conditions compared to some Syrian regions that continue to suffer from unemployment, lack of reconstruction, and the ongoing effects of war and displacement.

Developments after the fall of the government, particularly the deadly incidents witnessed on the Syrian coast, have also made many members of the Alawite community hesitant to return, fearing retaliatory acts or security violations.

The Lebanese newspaper Al-Nahar reported that Syrian workers continue to work despite increasing risks, amid ongoing instability inside Syria, especially following recent bloody events on the Syrian coast.

Meanwhile, military developments in southern Lebanon are accelerating, after the Israeli army issued warnings to the entire area south of the Zahrani River, calling on residents to evacuate immediately, following a period in which the cities of Tyre and Nabatieh had been relatively spared from direct targeting.

A-H

ANHA