119,000 Syrians have returned from Lebanon during Israel-Hezbollah war
Almost 120,000 Syrians have returned to their country from neighboring Lebanon since the latest war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah, according to International Organization for Migration figures provided to AFP on Wednesday.
"As of 17 March, 125,784 people have entered Syria from Lebanon" since the fighting there began, "about 119,000 of whom are Syrians", according to the figures from the UN agency's Displacement Tracking Matrix.
Lebanon -- which hosts around one million Syrians who fled their country's civil conflict starting in 2011 -- was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel in retaliation for U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader.
Israel has responded with intense strikes on Lebanon and ground operations in the south, where the health ministry said four Syrians were killed on Tuesday.
Syria has so far stayed out of the regional war.
More than half a million Syrians returned from Lebanon last year, according to the U.N. refugee agency, following the 2024 fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, who was supported by Iran and Hezbollah.
Source: Agence France Presse
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