A British man who works for an international humanitarian organisation and wishes to remain anonymous, evacuated his home in Beirut to Mount Lebanon with his wife and child last week.
They are looking for a flight out of Lebanon, but spots are booked for the next two weeks “in every which direction”, with the earliest on 16 or 17 October, and those are business class seats to Madrid or Milan costing thousands, he told the .
He said he heard about the chartered flight for British citizens through news reports and has not received any information or offer from the Foreign Office to buy a seat.
News told the Foreign Office about British nationals saying they had not received confirmation or communication about the charter flight.
The Foreign Office did not comment.
He added that many people are fearful and under psychological stress because “we don’t know where Israel is going to strike next”.
“Everyone outside of the Bekaa Valley and the south and the suburbs of Beirut feels that the war is going to inevitably come to their doorstep,” he said.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his country is facing “one of its most dangerous phases”, and that one million people are displaced.
On Monday Israel said it had launched a ground invasion in southern Lebanon, in what it has described as “limited, localised and targeted” raids against Hezbollah.
Lebanese civilians are being warned not to use vehicles to travel south across the Litani river, located 20 miles (32km) north of the Israel-Lebanon border, and residents in around 25 villages have been told to evacuate and head north.
The previously sporadic cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah escalated on 8 October 2023 – the day after the unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip – when Hezbollah fired at Israeli positions, in solidarity with the Palestinians.
