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British nationals in Lebanon have said they are struggling to find a way to escape the country despite the UK government urging people to “leave immediately” as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies.
Prime minister Keir Starmer said during a trip to the United Nations in New York on Wednesday that “the time to leave is now” as more than a thousand Israeli strikes across Lebanon have killed over 500 people and injured thousands more in just two days.
The prime minister urged citizens to leave “while commercial flights are available”, but the reality is that most, if not all, are sold out and others cancelled, leaving some British nationals stranded and in limbo.
Rita El Kassis, 48, has a UK spouse visa and lives in London but is in Lebanon caring for a sick relative. She has a return flight booked from when she came out earlier in the summer, but fears what could happen between now and the departure next week.
If Israel bombs the country’s only commercial airport in Beirut, or the roads to it, as it did in the 2006 war against Hezbollah, it would sever Rita’s means of escape. Three people were killed today in the town of Al-Maaysra in Keserwan, north of Beirut, just 15 minutes from her family home.
“I’m trying not to panic but I have called the embassy and they said there is no plan”, she told The Independent. “I had a search online yesterday and the only alternative flight available was a business class flight for £4600 to Dubai. I would then need to book another flight to London.” Rita says she and her family have discussed getting a flight from Turkey but that first means an eight-hour taxi through Syria.
Fears of an all-out war are now at their highest since Hezbollah stepped up its attacks on Israel, a day after the deadly Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October, in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Dalia Richani feels like she is one of the “lucky ones” who had a pre-booked return flight back to the UK after visiting family in the summer. She and her family fled to Britain after Israel invaded southern Lebanon in 1982. Because of this, she says, there are “10s of 1000s of Brits in Lebanon.”
She told The Independent: “We have had three big wars but this one seems more insidious. People are saying: ‘Oh we've gone through that before, we have gone through wars, but this is different. This feels different.’ Had I not had my husband and three boys sort of urging me to leave, I don't think I would have left. To tell you honestly, it feels terrible to leave your family.”
Dalia fears some of her relatives have “left it too late”, she says her brother is leaving tonight via Jordan but there are many more without tickets and “some people are going to the airport, just waiting, hoping that they can get tickets.”
For others leaving home is not such an easy decision. Dalia’s cousin Hayat, who was born in the UK but has lived in Lebanon for 15 years, tells The Independent that despite the “psychological warfare” of the “booms and explosions overheard” she won’t be leaving.
Hayat said she doesn’t know whether she is “stupid or naive” but feels she can’t leave her life. For now, she has moved from southern to central Beirut to stay safe and put her dogs in a boarding facility “in the mountains.”
Ministers have been preparing for a possible evacuation of Britons in Lebanon, with 700 troops being deployed to Cyprus to ensure they are ready if an emergency airlift is needed. Many fear a repeat of scenes during the UK troop withdrawal from Kabul when the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021.
Rita’s son in London, who wished not to be named, said he “took a big gasp of air” when he saw the strike close to their family home this morning. He said he goes “on and off” his desk at work calling his mother to make sure she is okay.
He told The Independent: “I tried to call my mum on WhatsApp and she wasn't picking up. I tried to call her on the landline, but she wasn't picking up. I eventually saw on Find My Friends she was at a friend’s house, but you're just fearing for the worst.”
He is also frustrated at the lack of information from the British embassy and cites American relatives who have received calls from their embassy as more commendable and “proactive” in their response.
He continued: “There's absolutely no flights available for the next week to get out. The only option I'm considering at the moment is for her to exit through Syria into Turkey and then grab a flight from there. But a lone woman doing that is quite scary. I'm trying to see if she and my American uncle can go together. But we're trying to organise everything ourselves, alone, to be honest.”
An FCDO spokesperson told The Independent they are “working in lockstep” with its “allies to de-escalate tensions.” They continued: “The government is planning for a range of scenarios and is prepared to provide additional support to British nationals if required.”
