‘It was unexpected’: Lebanese diaspora returning home for the holidays

When Charly* left Lebanon for good a few weeks ago, he never imagined he would spend the holidays with his family back home. This autumn, as war raged between Hezbollah and Israel, he turned his back on a life overshadowed by grim news. “For me, staying in Lebanon had become unbearable,” he said.With a one-way ticket to Qatar, Charly started building a new life thousands of kilometers away. However, the Nov. 27 cease-fire agreement between the warring parties opened new possibilities.Cautiously optimistic, Charly waited a few days before booking a flight. “At first, I didn’t really believe in the truce,” he said. It wasn’t until the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria on Dec. 8 that he finally took the leap. Read more In Kfar Shuba, the Khalife family returns to a destroyed home for the sixth time ‘Lebanon was becoming...