Syrian refugees in Northern Lebanon, on March 8, 2025. Photo obtained by Michel Hallak.
Dozens of Syrian families, primarily from the Alawite community, sought refuge in Lebanon overnight on Friday as bloody clashes raged between Syrian security forces and allied groups against supporters of former President Bashar al-Assad in western Syria’s coastal areas.
According to a correspondent in northern Lebanon, dozens of families arrived overnight in Lebanese border villages in Akkar. Carrying only a few essential items, they crossed the Nahr al-Kabir River on foot, which separates the two countries in certain areas.
Some families were temporarily housed in Alawite community centers in the Akkar plain, while others took refuge with relatives in Jabal Mohsen, an Alawite neighborhood in Tripoli, northern Lebanon’s largest city.
Temporary accommodations
Tal Bireh municipal chief Abdel Hamid Saqr told our correspondent that more than 150 families had arrived in his town and were living in "extremely difficult" conditions. They were housed in the community hall, a room adjacent to the mosque, and some private homes.
Saqr said he had notified Akkar’s governor, Imad Labaki, of the situation, and a census was underway to register all families who arrived overnight and arrange temporary accommodations in the village and surrounding areas.
Clashes between forces loyal to new Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa — primarily composed of fighters from jihadist rebel groups — and former Assad loyalists in the coastal region have so far killed at least 534 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. That number includes more than 300 Alawite civilians who were "executed" by security forces, the group said.
International community called to assist
Residents of Akkar fear a surge in refugees in a region that has already absorbed thousands of displaced Syrians, often in makeshift camps, since the start of the civil war in 2011, the correspondent reported.
Local authorities have called on the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and international organizations to provide aid to the new arrivals. Lebanese authorities have also been urged to take appropriate measures to address the situation.
Syria’s civil war, which began in 2011 after a crackdown on anti-Assad demonstrations, has repeatedly stoked tensions in Tripoli, particularly between the Alawite-majority Jabal Mohsen neighborhood and the predominantly Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh district.
Other regions of Lebanon are also affected by the unrest in Syria. In Hermel, near the Syrian city of Homs, tensions on Thursday night and Friday left residents on edge.
"The situation is bad. We do not know what to expect at all," Mohammad Zeaiter, municipal chief of Qasr, told L’Orient-Le Jour on Friday.
Local sources in the area told the correspondent, Sarah Abdallah, that neither Hezbollah nor local clans intended to retaliate after gunfire was reported, despite clashes in February between clan members — mainly Shiite clans presumed to be close to Hezbollah — and Syrian security forces.