Feature: Despite misery, Syrian refugees in Lebanon celebrate Valentine's Day

Despite the harsh living conditions of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and the loss that hit almost every single family due to the ravaging war that engulfed their homeland, some of the young refugees managed to celebrate Valentine's Day that is marked around the world as the day of love.

Twenty years-old Hassan abou Ahmadi displaced from Idlib, collected a bouquet of red plum that is abound in the Lebanese mountainous areas and presented it to his fiancée Salwa who is living in the Bar Elias refugee camp.

"This is all what I can afford to give to my beloved on the Valentine's Day amid the poverty and misery we are living though," Abou Ahmadi told Xinhua.

He added "we must have a small space of hope and moments of love to face the hell of anger and hatred that has been accompanying the Syrians for five years now."

However, he pointed out that "it was hard for me to remember this occasion that has disappeared from our lives, but love should be stronger than the hatred and injustice of those forces that imposed the war on our country that was in the good old days a place of glory, peace and development."

But, Samar al-Hatami, a 23 year old woman displaced to the Qaroun camp in the Western Bekaa, was sitting at the entrance of her tent contemplating the nearby lake with stray looks.

Asked about her wishes on this occasion, she told Xinhua with teary eyes "my fiancé was killed 18 months ago by a shell that fell near his house in Aleppo."

She added "the last Valentine we spent together, he brought me a bouquet of red roses he collected under the shelling targeting a prairie in Aleppo."

"We kissed and started planning for our future. But the damn war killed our dreams. He was murdered and I had to be displaced looking for a safe place," she added.

She asked "in such circumstances, how can an occasion of love be remembered or have a place in our lives?"

As for Zaher Abou Ghaida, displaced from Damascus neighborhoods, he told Xinhua "love and I are twins. I admit that since the first sight I fell in love with my fiancée and despite the horrors of the Syrian war, I would not lose the passion."

He hoped to celebrate the next Valentine in Syria that remains his lasting passion.

According to the UN Higher Commission for refugees, Lebanon hosts more than 1.1 million Syrians who fled their war-torn country since the uprising against the administration of President Bashar Assad that broke out in March 2011. Endit