Speaking after the Cobra meeting, Healey said: “Our concern is always for the safety of British nationals and our advice to them is to leave Lebanon now, that hasn’t changed.
“This was a meeting simply to make sure that we’ve got plans in place for future developments.”
Asked if he feared a widening of the conflict, Healey said: “This was just about planning for future developments, our advice hasn’t changed.
“Don’t travel to Lebanon and if you’re a British national, leave now.”
Cobra – or COBR – meetings are named after Cabinet Office Briefing Room A on Whitehall.
It is an emergency response committee – a get together of ministers, civil servants, the police, intelligence officers and other officials appropriate to the situation they are looking into.
A senior military source told the the UK’s next steps would depend on what Hezbollah and Israel do next and whether Lebanon’s international airport remains open.
As well as the RAF airbase at Akrotiri in Cyprus, the Royal Navy has two ships in the eastern Mediterranean – HMS Duncan, a Type 45 Air Defence destroyer and RFA Mounts Bay, a larger supply ship with landing craft.
The Royal Navy evacuated British nationals by sea during the Lebanon war in 2006.