Australians are trickling out of Lebanon despite the government booking planeloads of seats and pleading with people to leave as Israel intensifies airstrikes and explosions are heard near Beirut’s airport.
Overnight on Thursday, 41 Australians were on flights out of Lebanon to Cyprus, while there are 500 seats available on flights this weekend if the capital’s airport stays open despite reports of strikes falling close to its perimeter.
Flames rise from Israeli airstrikes in the neighbourhood of Dahiyeh, Beirut, which is a Hezbollah stronghold. Credit: AP
There are an estimated 15,000 Australians in Lebanon but only 2338 people have registered an interest in leaving with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Tim Watts said people should leave Lebanon urgently, even if they had close family, business interests and homes in the country.
“Plenty of vacant seats though, available for Australians who want them,” Watts said on ABC News Breakfast. “We have registered at the moment, 2338 Australians who want to leave and we’ll be contacting them and working with them to facilitate their departure.”
“I do have some empathy [with people not leaving]. You know, people have, you know, entrenched lives in that community. They live there, they have elderly family, they have businesses, they have properties.
“This is a heart-wrenching decision to leave, but our advice is, don’t think twice about it, now is the time to leave.”
For a year, the government has pleaded for citizens in Lebanon to leave after Hamas’s attacks in Israel on October 7, due to prescient fears of proxy wars breaking out between Iran and Israel.
Israel began a series of missile and pager attacks in Lebanon to cripple Hezbollah two weeks ago, which has prompted Iran to retaliate with a barrage of missiles this week against Israel.
Beirut Airport remains open but on Thursday Foreign Minister Penny Wong warned it could close at any point. That would cripple the government’s plans to evacuate Australians. Australian Air force planes have been stationed in the region as a backup to commercial flights but damage to the airport could render that plan ineffective too.
Source Agencies
