Lebanon: UK nationals tell of life left behind after evacuation

Both Ms Taper and Ms Deeley say their families have been affected by the escalating conflict in Lebanon.

Ms Deeley said her parents were anxiously waiting to hear whether her grandparents’ grave in the Bashoura Muslim cemetery in central Beirut had been damaged in an air strike on Wednesday.

Isobel said her boyfriend’s work as a musician has “completely disappeared” and she worries about other people who now find themselves without work.

“It’s one of the forgotten things that we don’t think about in war, how it affects so many industries. It affects so many aspects of people’s lives. I just constantly think: ‘It’s not going to get too bad,’ then every day it does get worse.”

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

Some have been able to leave on commercial flights – but said empty seats were hard to find.

The Foreign Office said it was working to increase capacity on commercial flights for British nationals, and that around 700 troops and government staff had been deployed to Cyprus for “contingency planning”.

Israel has stepped up its aerial assault of Beirut in the past week, targeting densely populated areas that it says are home to Hezbollah leaders and military equipment.

On Tuesday, Israeli ground forces entered southern Lebanon in what it described as a “limited and targeted” incursion.

Iran later launched a barrage of missiles toward Israel, exacerbating fears of a growing regional conflict.