Arsal is a town in the north of Lebanon and today a semi-permanent home to some 70,000 Syrian refugees.
It is over 5000 feet above sea level and prone to torrid
heat in summer and biting cold in winter. To the North and East it borders Syria, with Hezbollah-led territory in
the South and West.
Last winter 15,000 refugees in the camp were forced to live without adequate roofs and insulation, exposed to harsh winter conditions, including subzero temperatures and flooding
Arsal has been brutalised in various ways throughout the Syrian war.
In 2012 there were incursions by both Assad's forces and the Free Syrian Army. There have been ambushes and kidnappings, and in August 2014, Daesh (ISIS) and its allies launched a major assault reaching the outskirts of Arsal.
They finally withdrew by agreement following a joint Hezbollah and Lebanese Army action in 2017.
The UNHCR Operational Update for Lebanon April-June 2020 estimates that 90% of refugees in Lebanon are now living in extreme poverty. The February 2021 edition of the Inter-Agency Coordination Statistical Dashboard indicates that the area of Arsal is one of the worst affected.
