ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Around 20,000 Lebanese and Syrian nationals have arrived in northeast Syria (Rojava) since the start of Israeli operations in Lebanon, Kurdish authorities in Rojava announced on Monday.

“The total number of people entering the region from Lebanon has reached 19,502,” said the crisis management cell of the returnees from Lebanon that was formed by the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES). 

The returnees are heading back to their homes or to the houses of their relatives, according to the Rojava authorities, adding “those without a place to go are being housed in centers designated by the Autonomous Administration.”

Since the start of Israeli operations, millions of Lebanese people have left the country, fleeing the war zone. Thousands of Syrians residing in Lebanon, who fled from their homes due to the civil war, also have returned to their homes. 

An estimated 2 million Syrians are living in Lebanon, according to the government, while around 800,000 of those are registered at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Israeli bombardments have killed 2,255 people and injured 10,524 others in Lebanon since last October, according to data compiled by the Lebanese health ministry. Nearly a quarter of the population, 1.2 million people, has been displaced, Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in early October.

Some of the Lebanese refugees have used Syria as a transit route to enter Iraq through the al-Qaim border crossing.