The fall of the brutal Assad regime in Syria is fuelling optimism among the millions of Syrian refugees scattered across the Middle East and around the world about returning home.
But there is still great uncertainty as to whether it is safe to make that journey, given there is so much still unknown about the rebel fighters who have seized control of the country and have installed a new caretaker government.
In the narrow, winding laneways of the Shatila refugee camp in the Lebanese capital, many Syrians who fled the civil war and sought safety in Beirut have already packed their belongings and attempted to cross the border.
"As soon as they reached Syria, they kneeled and prayed on their country's soil," refugee Sahar Mohamad Kamal told the ABC.
"And they were so excited to leave Lebanon, that they only have their clothes with them.
"Even if there's no house [in Syria], they'll stay in a tent — just to be there."
The 55-year-old mother is not joining them, just yet.
"For now I'm going to stay in Lebanon, to see how the situation is going to evolve in Syria before going back," she said.
"Whatever comes next, it's going to be better than with Bashar al-Assad — by far."
It is a remarkable sense of optimism, considering her son Abdul Rahman did attempt to return over the weekend, only to be killed in an explosion.
She fought back tears as she spoke of her loss, and blamed the now-deposed dictator for his death, and the killing of multiple members of her family during the 13-year civil war.
"When my son came with me to Lebanon, he was five. And yesterday was the first time he'd gone back to Syria," Sahar said.
"My son's blood is on Bashar al-Assad's hands, my brother and sister's blood too."
Sahar recently received records recovered from the notorious Sednaya prison confirming her gravest fears about her siblings — they were tortured and murdered at the facility.
Fleeing the horrors of war
A warning — this story contains distressing details
Sahar's experiences are, unfortunately, all too common among the Syrians who fled.
Originally from a village near the city of Homs, in the country's west, she said her family had tried to remain at home in the early years of the war.
But it soon became too much.
She recounted one horrific day when two young girls, members of her extended family, were killed as the village was bombed by the Syrian army.
They were forced to collect their remains, piece by piece, after the explosion ripped apart their tiny bodies.
Sahar's husband is now unable to walk, suffering serious injuries to his legs from another bombing incident.
She remains physically scarred from window glass that hit her in the head, blown out by a strike next door.
As Sahar and her family — including five of her children — were fleeing south to the Lebanese border, she said some of her children found refuge in an abandoned school.
"They slept one night there," she said.
"They were frightened, because the walls were covered in blood — they couldn't stay any longer."
While travelling south along the highway with another family, they were detained at a checkpoint by Syrian soldiers.
Two of her fellow travellers were taken into a room and beaten — she could hear their screams and pleaded with one soldier to let them all go, only to be threatened.
"He told me: 'How about I cut your brother's head off in front of you?'"
UN says ongoing support is needed for Syrian refugees
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said around 1.5 million Syrians had sought safety in Lebanon during the course of the war.
The moves by opposition forces to seize control of the country, forcing the Assad family to flee to Russia, have been welcomed.
"We hope of course, fervently, that it will be a positive direction, a stable Syria with conducive conditions for return," UNHCR's Lebanon Representative Ivo Freijsen said.
He revealed thousands of Syrians had already made the decision to travel.
"They're moving because they know that they can go back to a specific location, there's family to receive them, there's a house where they can settle and they have the financial means because returning is not cheap," Mr Freijsen said.
"You need to rent a car, you need to actually rent a truck if you want to bring all your belongings and so forth.
"So not everybody is in a position to decide that from one day to the other, pack up and go and move back to Syria."
He said the regime change in Syria should not spell the end of ongoing support for refugees in Lebanon and further afield.
"We call on the international community to continue to support our work here so that we can support Lebanon in the hosting of refugees," Mr Freijsen said.
"And then an equally or perhaps more forceful message to the international community is to support Syria, rally around Syria so that genuine pull factors will develop so that more Syrian refugees can start to go back voluntarily, safely and in a dignified manner."
Lebanon buckles under the strain
In the days after the Assad regime fell, Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the Syrian refugees in his country should leave.
"The strain on our resources has been substantial, worsening existing economic trouble and creating fierce competition for jobs and services," he told a summit in Italy.
"Today, and after the political transformation in Syria, the best resolution to this issue is for Syrians to go back to their homeland."
Lebanon is dealing with its own refugee crisis, with more than 1 million people displaced during the conflict between militant group Hezbollah and Israel.
A recent ceasefire has led to up to 900,000 people returning to southern Lebanon, but they remain at risk.
"Our main message here is that we should not equate a ceasefire with everything is fine and we can switch off and start to focus on other things," Mr Freijsen said, as an Israeli drone buzzed in the skies outside the UNHCR office in Beirut.
"A lot of these people cannot go back to their house, they have gone back to an area close to their house or they were able to reoccupy a house or the apartment where they were living, but there are lots of issues.
"The apartment, the house is damaged, perhaps they have lost their income. They can no longer or they cannot actually easily repair the dwelling and so forth.
"So there are lots of return challenges at the beginning of the winter.
"Then there are 200,000 to 300,000 Lebanese internally displaced who have not been able to move yet … they are still in a collective centre, they're still with friends and family or are renting an apartment here because they know the house no longer exists, or their village falls into the zone where Israel has declared that people cannot yet go back to.
"Or recently, bombing took place yet again, closer to their village or town in the south, because that unfortunately continues."
He said it would still be many weeks before it become clear whether the ceasefire would hold, and longer term peace would come to southern Lebanon.
