‘Afraid of return’: Palestinians fearful of life in Yarmouk camp

Some 160,000 Palestinians were forced to flee Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus throughout the 10-year-long war.

After years of displacement and months of running around to obtain the required government permits, 74-year-old Um Ahmad finally visited her home in Yarmouk camp near Damascus. She found only ruins. “It is completely destroyed,” she told Al Jazeera on the phone. “My home, my neighbourhood, they are unrecognisable. Even the wiring inside the walls of my house has been ripped off.” Um Ahmad is among 160,000 Palestinian Syrians who were forced to abandon Yarmouk amid clashes between the Syrian government forces and the rebels and later between the military and the armed group ISIL (ISIS).