Some Australians have been evacuated from Lebanon amid the intensifying conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, and others are on wait lists.
Almost 2,300 Australian citizens, permanent residents and immediate family members have already departed, and about 3,000 have told the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade they want to leave.
The federal government has warned and have repeated calls to “leave now”.
But despite this, Australian Lebanese man Steve Rizk is among those staying put.
Rizk spoke to SBS News a few days before Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced on Wednesday that the last scheduled evacuation flight would take off on Sunday, but has since confirmed he will not seek to leave.
Within one week, Rizk moved three times in search of safer locations. The first two times his family came with him but when he spoke to SBS News he was on his own.
“Right now, I’m not willing to leave Lebanon. I think people here are in need of help. So till now my plan is to stay here and help people as much as I can,” Rizk told SBS News on Sunday.
Rizk said the weeks since Israel started bombing Lebanon had been “really tough” and he had been witnessing “strikes and attacks” every day.
That has come amid intensifying conflict between the Lebanese political and militant group Hezbollah and Israel, who have been engaged in near-daily cross-border fire in fallout from — the Palestinian enclave ruled by Hezbollah ally, Hamas.
What was a mostly low-level conflict following has spiralled since late September, when used by Hezbollah exploded killing at least 39 people and wounding about 3,000 in Lebanon.
Then, Israel’s military killed in a strike on Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.
Israeli strikes have killed at least 2,169 people in Lebanon over the past year, according to the Lebanese government. The majority have been killed since 27 September, when Israel expanded its military campaign. Meanwhile, the government says attacks have forced 1.2 million from their homes.
Australia has said Lebanon, and together with the the United States, the European Union, and several Arab nations backed a 21-day ceasefire proposal in late September.
But that was rejected by Israel, and has said his military would continue “degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are made”.
People gather in front of a damaged building after an Israeli airstrike on the Basta neighborhood in Beirut, Lebanon. Source: AAP / Wael Hamzeh
And on Tuesday, Netanyahu said in a video : “You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.
‘Unsafe anywhere you go’
Rizk said this is the second time he has lived through conflict in Lebanon, but he felt this time was “more severe” than the 2006 war with Israel, because Beirut was being targeted.
He said he felt like he could lose a family member at any moment.
“It’s the feeling of being unsafe anywhere you go. It’s the feeling of losing the friends and relatives,” he said.
Rizk said he hopes the people of Lebanon survive.
“The people of Lebanon witnessed a lot, but they have the spirit of living. They, they’ve been through a lot, but they never surrendered and they never gave up hope,” he said.
“I think this time also we’re not going to give up. I think we’re going to resist till the end. We’re going to stand up till the end.”
‘Australian evacuees should pay’
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham has said Australians evacuated from Lebanon should have to pay their own way.
“In the case of Lebanon, there have been warnings and instructions from the Australian government not to travel there and if you are there to get out, and those warnings have gone on for month after month after month, did they in terms of those warnings,” he told SBS News.
Multiple people have told SBS News that they are staying longer in Lebanon to care for elderly family members or to protect their families and feel compelled to stay there for these reasons.
Asked did he have any sympathy for them, Birmingham said he did but doubled down on his remarks.
“I respect their free choice, but that doesn’t mean that the government is providing free aviation services. It’s the responsibility of the government to help people get out.”
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan was among those critical of Birmingham’s remarks, writing on X on Friday: “The Liberals have no humanity.”
With reporting by the Reuters news agency.
