Feature: Returning home is Syrians' sweetest dream for 2016

"My sweetest dream is returning to my home. We used to live a comfy life, which we didn't appreciate, but now I dream of every little bit of it," said Ibtisam Abdul-Qader, a Syrian woman who had to flee her home in Yarmouk Camp south of the capital Damascus after the war engulfed her area.

Abdul-Qader's wishes for 2016 appeared to be the dream of the majority of Syrians, who had to flee their homes after the spiraling violence engulfed much of Syria, leaving half of its 23 million population displaced.

"Returning home is our sweetest dream. I pray to return home. We have had the best life but we didn't appreciate it. After the crisis, we have come to realize the value of our old lives," she said with teary eyes as she recalled her house in Yarmouk Camp, which houses Palestinian refugees and Syrians as well.

Abdul-Qader, who is a state servant, said she fled Yarmouk in 2012 after mortar shells started landing near their home and sought to stay at a hotel, where she had stayed for two weeks, thinking the situation could soon be clam.

"I though the situation would be quickly solved and that I could return home, but I could no longer afford the hotel and decided to move to the eastern district of Jaramnah, where I stay right now," she said.

Describing how tough her daily life is, Abdul-Qader said she walks half of the way from her work to home back and forth every day to save half of the transportation fare.

"I walk from my working place in the northern district of al-Mazra'a about seven kilometers to the bus station in Ibn Asaker area to save some money because I pay half of my salary for the rent," she said.

"But despite all of that, we are still able to laugh and cling to the hope of a better tomorrow," Abdul-Qader said, with a defiant smile.

Khaled Khatib, another Syrian from the Yarmouk Camp, said he had fled the camp for over three years, adding that he changed places three times before finally settling in a slum-like neighborhood in Damascus outskirts called Dhadil.

Khatib works as a state employee in the morning, and a cobbler in the afternoon at one of the street stalls spreading on the sidewalk out of the walls of the old city of Damascus.

"My hopes are for me and my family to return home and peace to return to this country and I also wish if the prices here could go down. I have fled my home in the Yarmouk Camp south of Damascus for over three years. Now, I live in the Dahadil area in a rented house. My situation is miserable as I'm a state servant and our situation as employees is extremely bad," he said, with a mixed feelings of hope and resentment.

During the Syrian war, Yarmouk camp became the scene of intense fighting between the Western-backed rebel Free Syrian Army and its Palestinian ally Liwa al-Asifa on the one hand, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- General Command (PFLP-GC) supported by Syrian Army government forces on the other.

Subsequently, the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and the Islamic State (IS) have become in control of much of the camp, and the Syrian army tightened the already-imposed siege on the camp, which led to the displacement of thousands of the camp's residents to nearby areas.

Fleeing hotspots was not confined to Yarmouk Camp, many areas around Damascus have seen intense violence in the span of the nearly five-year-old conflict.

Salim Abu Assaf, a 60-year-old, have fled the Damascus' western town of Zabadani for over three years. Now he lives with his six children in a rented apartment near Damascus.

"I am trying hard and working different kinds of things just to be able to buy bread for my family and nothing more than that. I wish I could return home to my house in Zabadani. Returning home is the dream of everyone," he said.

Assaf said he hopes the currently-underway truce could enable him to return to Zabadani, where the Syrian army backed by the Lebanese Hezbollah have been on a crushing offensive to strip that town from the rebels due to its strategic location northwest of Damascus near the Lebanese borders.

The army and the rebels have agreed under the mediation of Iran and Turkey to evacuate the rebels from Zabdani and in return the rebels would loosen their siege on two pro-government Shiite towns of Kafraya and Foa in the countryside of Idlib.

The first stage of the deal was concluded six months ago, during which a ceasefire largely held. The second stage was established earlier this week, when the wounded rebels and their families were allowed to leave Zabdani in tandem with the evacuation of Shiite fighters and their families from Kafraya and Foa.

Still, many civilians are still held in Kafraya, Foa and Zabadani, waiting for further steps to be established for their evacuation as they have suffered hunger, cold and illness.

The truces concluded in areas around Damascus were seen also in the capital's northern district of Qudsaya and new ones are set to take place in Yarmouk and the nearby areas of Hajar al-Aswad and Qadam.

Observers believe those truces that aim finally to remove the insurgency from rebel-held areas aim eventually to fully secure the vicinity of the capital by allowing the besieged rebels to evacuate their positions toward rebel-held areas in northern Syria for the Syrian army to restore control in those areas.

Many displaced Syrians are looking to those truces as a hope to return to their homes especially with the harsh winter conditions.

Earlier this month, the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned of a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Syria as winter approaches.

Nearly five years of conflict have left much of the country's infrastructure destroyed or severely damaged. Hundreds of thousands of people are trying to survive with the most basic resources as temperatures fall below freezing.

"We need better access so that aid can be brought to the most vulnerable. The situation is nothing short of critical for many, many people," said a Red Cross statement sent to Xinhua.

More than 12 million Syrians, including 5.5 million children, are in need of immediate humanitarian assistance. More than four million people have fled abroad and around eight million are displaced within the country; many have been forced to move several times.

Maya Hussaini, a Syrian student, said her family had to flee their home in the Damascus' eastern suburb of Douma, which has become the main stronghold of the rebels east of Damascus.

Wearing her back bag on her way back from school, Hussaini said she wishes to return home and to be able to re-unite with her friends, much of whom not even fled Douma, but the entire country.

"I wish this crisis would come to an end and Syria return to what it used to be. I also wish to return home to my hometown in Douma, east of Damascus, from which I fled after the battles raged over there. I also wish to see my friends, much of whom have fled the country and sought refuge elsewhere," she hoped.

"All of my friends have left the country, leaving me with a few relatives only," she lamented.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, says Syria has become the biggest exporter of refugees to the world for the second consecutive year. Endit