British authorities have called on their citizens to leave Lebanon as quickly as possible due to the escalation between the country and Israel, the UK government website reported.
“The events of the past hours and days have shown how fragile the situation is and our message is clear: UK citizens must leave the country immediately.” – said the Minister of Defense Juan Healy.
Some 700 troops have been sent to Cyprus to prepare for the possible evacuation of British troops from Lebanon. The Ministry of Defence says that two British ships, Mounts Bay and HMS Duncan, are already in the area and can help with the transfer of personnel, and that Royal Air Force aircraft and helicopters will also be involved if necessary. The possible evacuation will be coordinated from the British air base at Akrotiri in Cyprus.
The Guardian notes that the government is keen to avoid the chaos that resulted from the evacuation of British citizens from Afghanistan in 2021, when the Taliban seized power there.* (The movement is recognised as a terrorist organisation in Russia and is banned.) Last year, according to the BBC, the government helped coordinate the evacuation of British citizens from the Gaza Strip. Before the start of the war, around 200 British citizens lived in the area.
British Prime Minister Keir StarmerSpeaking to reporters before heading to New York to attend the UN General Assembly, he said: “The most important message I have sent this afternoon is a call to British citizens in Lebanon to leave the country immediately.” He also called on Lebanon and Israel to “pull themselves back from the abyss.”
Hezbollah and Israel have been trading airstrikes regularly over the past year, a situation that escalated after massive pager bombings in Lebanon in mid-September, which the group blamed on the Israeli side. She denied the allegations.
During the latest Israeli attacks on Beirut, several senior Hezbollah members were killed; according to Lebanese authorities, more than 560 people were killed and hundreds were injured. On September 23, Israel launched the military operation “Northern Arrows” in Lebanon, RBC recalls.
*Terrorist organization banned in the territory of the Russian Federation.
