European Nations Urge Citizens to Evacuate Lebanon Amid Escalating Conflict
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European countries are asking their citizens to leave Lebanon as Israel began its ground offensive against Hezbollah on Tuesday.
“Go while you still can,” Dutch Ambassador to Lebanon Frank Mollen said Tuesday morning, but adding, for now, the Netherlands will not organize an evacuation flight.
“That’s really a last resort, you only do that if you really can’t do anything else,” he told Dutch media NOS.
Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah intensified in southern Lebanon after the militant group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed by Israeli airstrikes on Friday, capped by the start of Israel’s ground offensive on Tuesday.
The U.K. government announced Monday evening that it had chartered its first flight out of Lebanon to leave Wednesday.
“It is vital that you leave now as further evacuation may not be guaranteed,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy told British nationals, describing the situation as “volatile” and with the potential to “deteriorate quickly.”
Germany’s Foreign Ministry also announced Monday that it had sent a special military aircraft to Beirut “to support the departure of the colleagues and their families” as well as members of German partner organizations.
“German nationals who are particularly at risk due to medical circumstances are also being taken,” the ministry said in the statement.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani urged Monday evening all Italian citizens to leave Lebanon “using commercial flights from Beirut to Milan or Rome.”
“In this moment it is good to leave the country because the situation is really complicated, there is fighting going on. So, for the maximum guarantee, it is good that Italian citizens leave,” he said.
A catastrophe is unfolding, says UNICEF
We’ve just been speaking to UNICEF’s deputy representative for Lebanon, Ettie Higgins, who says it has been a “very difficult” night across the country.
This was particularly the case for people in Beirut, where an “increased level of airstrikes” have taken place.
Evacuation orders have been implemented across the southern suburbs of the capital, says Ms Higgins, and there have been “waves of displacement” as a result.
UNICEF is continuing to deliver assistance on the ground and staff have dealt with “hundreds of thousands of absolutely traumatised children”.
“What we are seeing unfold is a huge humanitarian catastrophe,” she explains, adding that the situation is being worsened by a turn in the weather.
“It’s really a very, very, very difficult and fast unfolding catastrophe.”
