Australians living in Lebanon have been warned that the government may not be able to assist everyone seeking a swift exit from the region as tensions escalate in the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

Thousands have fled southern Lebanon after Israel launched hundreds of air strikes, resulting in 492 deaths — the deadliest day of the cross-border conflict since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

On Tuesday morning, Foreign Minister Penny Wong reinforced her warnings, urging Australians in the region to leave while commercial flights remain available.

“The numbers of Australians in Lebanon are beyond the capacity of the government to provide assistance to all,” Senator Wong said.

“We again say to any Australian who is in Lebanon, what we’ve been saying for months, you should return home while commercial options are still available if they are.”

Almost half of the scheduled flights from Beirut’s international airport were cancelled on Tuesday. 

At last estimate the government believed there were at least 15,000 Australians in Lebanon, but the real figure could be as high as 30,000 as many regular visitors don’t notify the Australian government.

Despite the repeated warnings to Australia citizens and permanent residents in recent months, some have chosen to stay.

Renato Obeid, 53, has lived in Lebanon since 1991 and said while the advice to return to Australia was “sound” there were people he couldn’t leave behind.

“I have family here, I have friends here, I have work here,” he told the ABC.

“The expats that do remain here are ‘bitter enders’, hardcore Lebanese.”

Mr Obeid, a photographer, has been travelling to Beirut every second day from northern Lebanon, and said people in the city were panicking.

“We’ve been hearing the sonic booms, and we’ve been seeing the Israeli jets flying over on an almost daily basis,” he said.

“There’s basically an exodus from Beirut, from the southern suburbs working its way through East Beirut and going all the way here to the north, bumper to bumper traffic.

“People are just panicking.”

Australia’s official travel advice for Lebanon has remained at do not travel since the Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack on Israel.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the fact people have continued to travel from Australia to Lebanon defied “common sense”.

“The fact that some people have continued to go from Australia to Lebanon in recent months is not a commonsense thing to do,” he said on Tuesday. 

“The government issues these warnings for a reason and the advice is that people should take the opportunity to come home.”