US urges nationals to immediately leave Lebanon

ISTANBUL (AA) – The US issued a warning Saturday to its nationals to immediately leave Lebanon as tension between Israel and Hezbollah continued to rise.

The US Embassy in Beirut said flights by several airlines have been canceled but “commercial transportation options to leave Lebanon remain available.”

“We encourage those who wish to depart Lebanon to book any ticket available to them, even if that flight does not depart immediately or does not follow their first-choice route. US citizens who lack funds to return to the United States may contact the embassy for financial assistance via repatriation loans,” it said in a statement.

It urged those who decide to remain to “prepare contingency plans for emergency situations and be prepared to shelter in place for an extended period of time.”

Airlines from the US, Netherlands, India, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, France and Poland have canceled flights to Israel and Lebanon for security reasons.

Lebanon is currently in a state of heightened security and military alert following an Israeli airstrike on a southern suburb of Beirut on Tuesday, which resulted in the assassination of senior Hezbollah leader Fuad Shukr.​​​​​​​

Tel Aviv said that the strike was a response to the killing of civilians in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights late last week.

On Thursday, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah promised a “genuine and substantial” response to Shukr’s assassination, asserting that confrontation with Israel has “entered a new phase, transitioning from merely supporting Gaza to an open major battle.”

The escalation comes against the backdrop of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed at least 39,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since early October last year.