While Syrian refugees in Lebanon return home, many Lebanese remain on edge. Years of conflict have left the Syria-Lebanon borderlands scarred, and fears grow that instability could spill over again.
Rafaat Nasrallah smokes a cigarette in his village on the Syria-Lebanon border."We are at the border," he says,"our roads lead to Syria, because for us Syria is my country as well as Lebanon."YOUNINE, Lebanon, near the border with Syria — Over the snowcapped mountains along the Lebanon-Syria border, the wind carries a sharp chill, blowing cigarette smoke from Rafaat Nasrallah's hand as he gestures toward the horizon.
But now many Syrians are heading home, jubilant. They carry mattresses on the roofs of their cars, sing chants of freedom and wave the revolutionary flag, some improvised from scraps of cardboard. Their return to Syria, after years of displacement, injects an unexpected moment of hope after years of violence.
"I'd make a deal with the devil if it meant protecting my village," he says."But Hezbollah is not the devil. They're our neighbors, the kids we grew up going to school with."
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