A rising number of nations evacuated their citizens from Beirut on Thursday as Israel's intensified bombing of the Lebanese capital prompted governments worldwide to urge their citizens to leave. Dozens of Greeks and Greek Cypriots boarded a Greek military aircraft at Beirut airport, with many children clutching soft toys and school bags. In the confined space onboard, some played with glow sticks, while others slept on their parents' laps as the plane departed the smoking city below.
The plane dropped off 38 Cypriots at Larnaca airport in Cyprus, approximately 200km west of Lebanon, before continuing to Athens, where 22 Greek nationals disembarked. "We were trapped, there was no other way to leave because Middle East aeroplanes are full and the earliest flight you can get is in ten days," Giorgos Seib told Reuters on the runway at an airport outside Athens after landing. "Every day the situation gets worse and we don’t know what will happen tomorrow."
Expatriates in Lebanon have been frantically trying to leave, and governments from China to Europe have devised plans to evacuate their citizens. Russia organized a special flight from Beirut on Thursday for the family members of Russian diplomats. Australia announced it has arranged hundreds of airline seats for its citizens to depart.
This week, life in Lebanon became unbearably traumatic for many as Israel's military urged residents of over 20 towns in the south to evacuate their homes immediately. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed over the past year, including 127 children, according to the country's health minister Firass Abiad on Thursday.
"It was very hard, very traumatic. I've never lived through anything like that before," said Clea Rita Barsamian, a 21-year-old hospitality management student who had been studying in Lebanon for two years, shortly after landing in Larnaca.
At Turkey's southern Tasucu port in Mersin, Gretchen, an American citizen who lived in Beirut for five years, said she arrived on a regular commercial ferry because flights in Beirut were canceled over the last few days. "We are continuously hearing artillery and shelling and it was just too much," she said after disembarking. "I just wanted to leave immediately."
Many hope to return to Lebanon, where they have built their lives. Others are too traumatized to say. Gigi Khalifa, a Libyan Cypriot, moved to Lebanon four years ago so her two children could learn Arabic. "The bombing was very close, it was very traumatic," she said, her voice breaking in the arrivals hall of Larnaca airport. "I just feel bad, you know? For all those people left behind. My friends, my kids' friends. I don’t know if we will ever see them again."
