The Government has prepared plans for “every contingency” to evacuate British nationals from Lebanon, a minister has said as Israel continues to conduct airstrikes on the country.
Pat McFadden, a senior Cabinet Office minister, told the BBC on Sunday the situation in Lebanon was “serious” and again urged British citizens to leave the country immediately.
He said: “There are commercial flights available, the Foreign Office is working with commercial airlines to make sure more are available.
“We will plan for every contingency but it is really important given the seriousness of the situation that British people in the area make what arrangements they can to leave now.”
The past three days have seen Israel carry out a series of airstrikes on targets in Lebanon, including one in Beirut on Friday that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the death of Mr Nasrallah, one of the founders of the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, was “an essential condition to achieving the goals we set”.
Airstrikes have continued over the weekend, with the Israeli military claiming to have killed Nabil Kaouk, deputy head of Hezbollah’s central council, on Saturday and Lebanon’s state news agency reporting that 11 people were killed by an Israeli strike in north-east Lebanon on Sunday.
Meanwhile, fears have been mounting that escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah could result in a full-scale regional war.
Western nations have repeatedly urged a ceasefire and a diplomatic solution, but neither Israel nor Hezbollah have indicated a willingness to de-escalate, while Iran’s supreme leader has called for “regional resistance forces” to “stand by and support” the militants.
On Sunday, Mr McFadden repeated the UK Government’s call for calm, saying it was “really important that we try to resolve these difficulties in a diplomatic way, no matter how difficult that sounds in light of what’s happened in recent days”.
Meanwhile, humanitarian organisations have warned Lebanon faces a “catastrophe”, with access to medical services and clean water disrupted by the airstrikes.
The United Nations has put the number of displaced people in Lebanon at more than 211,000, around half of whom have been displaced in the past week, in addition to the approximately 1.5 million Syrian refugees currently living in the country.
