British sisters say ‘no choice’ but to leave Lebanon

Speaking to the BBC from the airport in Beirut, university student Amal said she loved Lebanon and was “very upset” at having to leave.

“We’re just going to stay hopeful that it’s not going to be for long and we’re going to come back to our precious country.”

Amal, who was born in Surrey and has lived in Lebanon for five years, said she and her sisters planned to reunite with family in West Sussex.

Her sister Yasmine, who is still in school, said she would have never imagined leaving, but the situation required it.

Another British citizen, Libby, 25, boarded a commercial flight from Beirut to Cairo on Wednesday morning, and described the situation in the Lebanese capital as “terrifying”.

“You can’t sleep because you can hear the Israeli drones over your head, you wake up in the night because you hear strikes,” she told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

As of last week, there were thought to be between 4,000 and 6,000 UK nationals, including dependants, in Lebanon.

The chartered flight leaving Beirut on Wednesday will only be able to take a fraction of them, raising questions about whether additional flights will be needed.