Nabeha and Feras Arnous with two of their daughters Fatema (6) and Aya (7). Picture by Mal McCann.

THE latest attack on a family that fled war-torn Syria to settle in west Belfast has been described as a hate crime by the PSNI.

Nabeha Arnous and her husband Feras last night pleaded to be left in peace after their Beechmount home was again targeted by youths throwing stones last weekend.

Damage was caused to a downstairs window after the house at Iris Court was attacked at around 7pm on Friday.

The couple said the attacks began about eight months ago when eggs were thrown and have gradually become more violent.

During the most worrying incident, a glass bottle was thrown at the couple's daughters as they played with friends at the front of their home, which sits in a cul-de-sac near the Springfield Road.

Mrs Arnous (42) also revealed that abuse has been hurled at family members by the group of youths, who are not believed to come from the immediate area.

She said the gang has even come through her front door home and shouted abuse.

Police last night said they are treating the latest incident as a racially-motivated hate crime.

Mrs Arnous said she doesn't know why her family has been singled out.

“Maybe they know I am new here and Arabic and everyone here is Irish,” she said.

The couple and their four daughters, aged from six to 13, fled their home in the Syrian city of Homs four years ago as it was gripped by a brutal civil war, which has so far claimed almost half a million lives.

After walking through a desert for a week to the Jordanian border, they spent the following two years in two different refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon.

Having initially turned down a move to the United States because they wanted to wait for relatives trapped in Homs, the couple eventually accepted an offer to be relocated in Ireland before Christmas in 2015.

They were among the first wave of Syrian refuges to be relocated in the north in 2015 as part of the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme.

So far more than 550 refugees have been brought to the north under the scheme.

Mrs Arnous, who lost her own mother in Syria just weeks ago, said she has been happy in her west Belfast home.

“I like my house, it is quiet and my neighbours are very good,” she said.

She also praised those who have offered her family support and appealed to her tormentors to stop.

“I would say please don't hurt anyone,” she said.

“Please stop it.”

Neighbour and friend Brenda Gough said racist attacks are not tolerated in the area.

“It's heartbreaking to think that there are young people in this community that feel this is somehow acceptable.”

Mrs Gough said her new neighbours are “like family now”.

She said the parents of the young people involved need to control their children.

“I am sure they would be horrified if they knew what their children are doing."

A spokesman for the PSNI said: “Hate crime, in all its forms, is totally unacceptable.”