KEY POINTS
- The federal government is again urging Australians in Lebanon to leave the country.
- They face significant challenges, after international airlines suspended flights to and from the capital Beirut.
- The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is “working with airlines” to help Australians secure tickets.
Adelaide resident Brian Raslan has urged the Australian government to put more pressure on commercial airlines and allow flights out of Beirut airport, saying he’s been trying to heed advice to return home from Lebanon but is facing “unjustified” flight cancellations.
The Australian government says Australians in Lebanon are being assisted by the Department of Foreign Affairs to secure commercial airline tickets as the risk of the international airport shutting heightens.
Lebanese authorities have confirmed the suspension of all foreign carriers’ flights to and from Beirut International Airport.
The country’s flag carrier, Middle East Airlines, is now the only major carrier with services via Beirut.
Raslan says while he’s currently safe in an unspecified mountainous area in Lebanon, he’s been trying to leave ahead of his scheduled departure date of 19 October.
“It’s calm, it’s peaceful. The only thing we really hear up here is the sonic boom of the Israeli jets every day,” he told SBS News of his location.
But Raslan says he’s now concerned because his airline cancelled his flights: “without any notification or justification”.
He said his travel agent had tried to get him on a flight out of Beirut on Monday — back to Adelaide via Riyadh and Doha — but he alleges the airline knocked it back because it had to be the same airline all the way through.
Raslan says that same airline is not even flying out of Beirut, making the prospect impossible.
“In all fairness to the government, they’ve been giving us warnings to leave early. So I’m not holding government, our government, responsible for any of this,” he said.
“But what I’m a bit disappointed in is the fact that the free hand that they’re leaving or giving the airlines that are flying to the Middle East, and especially to Beirut, are they putting enough pressure on them?”
People line up at check-in counters at Rafik Hariri International airport in Beirut on Saturday. Source: AAP, AP / Ahmad Moussa
The federal government has been in recent weeks amid soaring tensions between the militant and political group Hezbollah and Israel.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said there was a risk Beirut airport may close for an extended period.
“We continue to urge Australians in Lebanon to take the first opportunity they can to depart. Please do not wait for a preferred route,” Wong said.
She acknowledged the decision to leave would be difficult, and there would also be difficulties in finding flights.
The Israeli military started “targeted” ground raids in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, backed by airstrikes and artillery. Source: Getty, AFP / Fadel Itani
Wong said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was “working with airlines to assist Australians secure tickets on commercial flights”.
Bulgaria and the United Kingdom are evacuating its citizens, but so far there’s been no such announcement from the Australian government.
On Tuesday (AEST), Israel announced that it in the border area of southern Lebanon — three days after it announced it had in a strike on the group’s central command headquarters in the southern suburbs of the country’s capital, Beirut.
Meanhile, there is growing frustration within Arab and Lebanese communities in Australia about the federal government’s rhetoric over Israel’s incursion and sustained attacks.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers denied the federal government was tip-toeing around the issue by using terms like “concern” about escalation, which Arab and Palestinian communities want to be strengthened.
“I don’t agree with that, but I understand and respect that our communities are hurting, and this is a difficult time for people,” he said.
Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed about 1,000 civilians and forced one million to flee their homes, according to the Lebanese government.
At least 95 people were killed and 172 wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s southern regions, the eastern Bekaa Valley, and Beirut in the past 24 hours, Lebanon’s health ministry said early on Tuesday.
Israel is already in a — the political and military group that has governed the Gaza Strip and an ally of Hezbollah — sparked after the October 7 assault by Hamas-led militants on southern Israel.
About 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli tallies, and about 250 others taken hostages.
Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, and plunged the territory into a deep humanitarian crisis.
With reporting by the Australian Associated Press.
