The suffering of the Palestinian refugees who were displaced from Handarat camp after the Syrian armed opposition took control of the camp on 04.27.2013 is still going on. People of the camp are facing harsh living conditions due to the displacement, most of them were forced to live in schools turned into evacuation centers, while others had to work with the pro-regimes militias such as “Al-Quds Brigades.
Handarat camp and the adjacent areas are still being bombed and exposed to violent clashes between the Syrian armed opposition groups on the one hand and the regime’s army and a “Al-Quds Brigade” on the other hand. According to eyewitnesses; a major parts of the camp has been destroyed by incessant shelling of explosive barrels and mortars as the regime’s army is still trying to impose its control over this strategic position camp, meanwhile, Â the opposition groups are seeking to advance towards the town of Handarat and the central prison of Aleppo.
It is noteworthy that this camp was established in 1962 on a high plateau overlooking the Canadian hospital and Al-Owijah and Jandoul and industrial Shaqif and Mallah areas, with an estimated population of 20,000 of Palestinian Syrian refugees who originally came from the cities of Haifa, Safed, Acre and villages like Kafr Lam and Al-Zeeb and Ijzim and Al-Tira and Tarshiha and Al-Nahr, and the villages of Hula Valley in Palestine like Azzawiyya and Al-Khalsa and the village of Hittin Tiberias.