5 British woman’s relatives killed in Israeli attack, UK urges citizens to leave Lebanon ‘now’

The UK has asked its citizens to leave Lebanon ‘now’ as the Israel-Hezbollah conflict intensifies. Meanwhile, a British woman who arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport on Saturday said five members of her family were killed in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon.

The British woman’s name is Sana Shamseddine. After arriving at Heathrow Airport with her two children and husband Abbas, she told journalists that her uncle, aunt, and their three daughters were killed in an Israeli air strike on their home in the city of Tyre, Lebanon. All three sisters were in their twenties. Among them, two sisters were doctors and one was an engineer. The engineer sister was supposed to get married within 10 days.

Last Monday, Israel launched intense air strikes on southern Lebanon and the eastern outskirts of the capital Beirut. These areas are known as strongholds of Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah. Last Friday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in such an attack in a Beirut suburb.

Sana feels a kind of guilt for fleeing Lebanon. She says, “On Monday morning, we were woken up by the sound of a huge bomb falling right next to our house. We saw on the news that another round of bombing would start within an hour. We didn’t take it too seriously. Because we’re not fighting… we’re ordinary citizens.”

Describing the incident, Sana says, “I talked to my uncle on WhatsApp. He told me, ‘Everything is fine. They won’t bomb you.’ But they (Israel) started bombing around us again. We couldn’t communicate on mobile phones anymore.”

Then Sana reached the airport after about 10 hours of road travel with her husband and children. When she arrived, she found that her uncle and his family couldn’t make it there. She says, “My husband and I feel guilty for fleeing here (to England) leaving the rest of our family in an unsafe place.” She also mentioned that her uncle was a good man. Sana’s husband Abbas is a biochemical engineer.

There are about five thousand British citizens and their family members in Lebanon. Among them, at least a few hundred are only UK citizens.

UK urges British citizens to leave Lebanon

In the context of the intensifying Hezbollah-Israel fighting, the UK government has asked British citizens to leave Lebanon.

On Friday night, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said British citizens should leave Lebanon on whatever flights are available. It was also said, “We are working to increase flights and secure seats for British citizens.”

Due to Israeli air strikes, various airlines have temporarily suspended their flights to Lebanon. However, some commercial flights are still operating in the country. Citizens of different countries staying in Lebanon are trying to leave the country on these flights.