Photos of Shiite Muslims displaced from Syria living at a newly opened camp in Lebanon

HERMEL, Lebanon (AP) — Thousands of Shiite Muslims who fled Syria after former President Bashar Assad's government was toppled in an offensive by Sunni rebels in December 2024 have found a new home in Lebanon.

Many of them stayed in mosques, schools or with relatives in Lebanon until the Imam Ali Housing Compound — funded by Lebanon's Shiite militant Hezbollah group and Shiite religious institutions in Iraq and Iran — was opened in late 2025. The camp, in the northeastern Lebanese town of Hermel, has nearly 230 housing units and is now home to both displaced Syrians and Lebanese.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

A Syrian Shiite woman, hangs her laundry at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where hundreds of mostly Lebanese and Syrian Shiite Muslims displaced from Syria reside, in Hermel, northeast Lebanon, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A Syrian Shiite woman walks next of portraits of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, foreground, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Kassem, centre, and the late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, background, at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where hundreds of mostly Lebanese and Syrian Shiite Muslims displaced from Syria reside, in Hermel, northeast Lebanon, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A Syrian Shiite man fixes the roof of his housing unit at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where hundreds of mostly Lebanese and Syrian Shiite Muslims displaced from Syria reside, in Hermel, northeast Lebanon, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Syrian Shiite boys play at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where hundreds of mostly Lebanese and Syrian Shiite Muslims displaced from Syria reside, in Hermel, northeast Lebanon, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A Syrian Shiite man reads the holy book of Quran in front of portraits of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, and the late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, left, at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where hundreds of mostly Lebanese and Syrian Shiite Muslims displaced from Syria reside, in Hermel, northeast Lebanon, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Syrian Shiite boys walk at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where hundreds of mostly Lebanese and Syrian Shiite Muslims displaced from Syria reside, in Hermel, northeast Lebanon, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Maha al-Abbir, 47, a Syrian Shiite woman, works at her shop at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where hundreds of mostly Lebanese and Syrian Shiite Muslims displaced from Syria reside, in Hermel, northeast Lebanon, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A Syrian Shiite boy, plays with a ball in front of a portrait of the late top Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where hundreds of mostly Lebanese and Syrian Shiite Muslims displaced from Syria reside, in Hermel, northeast Lebanon, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A Syrian Shiite cleric man, front, leads the noon prayer at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where hundreds of mostly Lebanese and Syrian Shiite Muslims displaced from Syria reside, in Hermel, northeast Lebanon, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Syrian Shiite girls gather at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where hundreds of mostly Lebanese and Syrian Shiite Muslims displaced from Syria reside, in Hermel, northeast Lebanon, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. The Arabic words right, read:"The Imam Ali Housing Compound, families of the honorable martyrs." (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Souria al-Hassan, 75, a Syrian Shiite woman, looks out from the window of her housing unit next to a portrait of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where hundreds of mostly Lebanese and Syrian Shiite Muslims displaced from Syria reside, in Hermel, northeast Lebanon, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

NEW YORK (AP) — The Justice Department on Friday released many more records from its investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein, resuming disclosures under a law intended to reveal what the government knew about the millionaire financier’s sexual abuse of young girls and his interactions with the rich and powerful.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department was releasing more than 3 million pages of documents in the latest Epstein disclosure, as well as more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images. The files, posted to the department’s website, include some of the several million pages of records that officials said were withheld from an initial release of documents in December.

They were disclosed under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law enacted after months of public and political pressure that requires the government to open its files on the late financier and his confidant and onetime girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

After missing a Dec. 19 deadline set by Congress to release all of the files, the Justice Department said it tasked hundreds of lawyers with reviewing the records to determine what needs to be redacted, or blacked out, to protect the identities of victims of sexual abuse.

Here's the latest:

Attorney Jay Clayton told New York federal court judges overseeing records in the sex trafficking cases against Epstein and Maxwell that some documents are being withheld temporarily while the government awaits further guidance from civil and criminal courts.

In a letter to the judges, Clayton says his office continues to engage with victims and their lawyers, including during a call Thursday. He said the Justice Department has invited victims to reach out if they believe anything has been published that should be redacted.

The huge cache of documents included email correspondence between prosecutors, printouts of thousands of emails that Epstein either sent or received, news clippings, and reports written by FBI agents summarizing their interviews with witnesses and alleged victims in the investigation.

As was the case with many previous releases of documents related to Epstein, much material was blacked out. Some of the reports on FBI interviews had entire pages blacked out, along with the name of the person who was being interviewed.

The deputy U.S. attorney general also responded to criticism about the Justice Department’s handling of the files’ release.

He said federal attorneys had to review all 6 million pages to ensure no victim information is released, and couldn’t do so within the 30-day timeline set by the law. He noted various exemptions under the law, but said no material was being withheld under a national security or foreign policy exemption.

“There’s not some tranche of super-secret documents about Jeffrey Epstein that we’re withholding,” he said about redactions in the files.

Justice Department lawyers made extensive redactions to the released files, including victim information that included their medical files.

They redacted images and videos, including removing any woman depicted in videos except for Ghislaine Maxwell.

Lawyers also withheld child sex abuse materials or anything depicting images of death, physical abuse or injury, as well as anything that would hurt an ongoing federal investigation, Blanche said.

Compiling accurate and thorough information takes time. A team of AP reporters is working to confirm information released by the Justice Department regarding Jeffrey Epstein.

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Blanche said that the release may not answer all the questions people have about Epstein or the handling of the allegations against him.

“There’s a hunger, or a thirst, for information that I don’t think will be satisfied by review of these documents,” he said.

“We did not protect President Trump. We didn’t protect — or not protect — anybody,” Blanche said.

Blanche called the review and release of Epstein files an “unprecedented effort” as he defended the Trump administration’s response to demands for their release.

“I take umbrage at the suggestion, which is totally false, that the attorney general or this department does not take child exploitation or sex trafficking seriously,” Blanche said. “We do.”

He said more than 6 million pages could potentially be released under the law, but that the department’s massive release does not include files that contain personally identifiable information of victims.

Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department, in releasing more than 3 million pages of Epstein files Friday, that federal lawyers gave up countless hours every single day to fulfill this “promise of transparency” to the American people.

FILE - Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche listens to President Donald Trump speak in the State Dining Room at the White House, Oct. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - Documents that were included in the U.S. Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files are photographed Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick, File)