As Syria’s war enters its fifth year, its refugees are fading deeper into the background. At a conference in Kuwait last week, countries promised more aid, but donor fatigue has left humanitarian organizations unable to help people like Deen, and that’s creating an opportunity for the Islamist militants who play a growing role in the conflict. This month, Islamic State and and al-Nusra Front militants took over much of the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus.

As I think of Syria today, two neighborhoods of Damascus are on my mind. One is Yarmouk, a neighborhood of mostly Palestinian refugees and their descendants. When I think of the "the camp," as it was so often called, I don't usually think of the fact that its population has shrunk to a fraction of the 112,000 people that once lived in that 0.8 square-mile space. I don't think about allegations of a little-reported chemical attack there last July. I don't think about the shelling and crushing of homes.