- Lebanese civilians are fleeing by yacht, flight, or crossing into Syria
- Israeli airstrikes have displaced over a million people
- Wealthier individuals are opting for costly escape options, while others face visa and financial hurdles
The Princess 2010 yacht is an amazing example of a boat. Before the war, its shining white hull could be seen patrolling Lebanon’s coastline, revellers making the most of the 24-metre-long craft for which they each paid $600.
Since Israel began an intensive bombing campaign throughout large parts of Lebanon on September 23, the Princess has been on a completely different voyage. The $1.3 million vessel has been transporting families from Beirut to Cyprus, with bottles of champagne replaced with hurriedly packed luggage.
The trips are fully booked; we have done approximately 30 trips on our two boats since the bombing began [on September 23],” said Khailil Bechara, a broker who works with ship captains to bring people to Cyprus.
At $1,800 per person, a spot on a boat going to Cyprus is expensive. But demand is enormous as people anxiously seek any way out of Lebanon.
Israel’s military assault against Hezbollah has killed approximately 2,000 people and injured over 9,000 since it began on October 8, 2018, with the majority of those casualties occurring after September 23. Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, stated on Thursday that more than one million people had been displaced since then.
Huge explosions rattled the skies near Beirut’s main airport early Friday. Although the airport remains open, only Middle East Airlines, Lebanon’s official flag airline, will fly there. People have fought for the few remaining seats on outgoing flights, while embassies have chartered private flights for their citizens. On Friday, Greece dispatched a C-130 military transport aircraft to Beirut to evacuate 60 Greek and Cypriot citizens.
Some private jets will no longer land at the airport. They said their plane was grounded at Paphos Airport in Cyprus for insurance reasons.
Instagram is full of sponsored posts advertising boats for people looking to exit Lebanon by any means necessary. Some boats resemble ones that have for years left the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli bound for Cyprus or Italy, loaded with Syrian refugees seeking a better life.
“Many folks have requested these vacations. Even though the airport remains open, those with money are eager to pay,” Bechara stated. He stated that the boats he dealt with could hold up to 15 passengers, were fully insured, and met all safety criteria.
Most Lebanese cannot afford to go aboard expensive yachts, and many need the necessary visas to arrive on Cyprus’ coast.
Sahar Sourani, a 33-year-old Lebanese woman who works for an international non-governmental organization, has been attempting to figure out how to get her parents and her brother’s family out of the country. Her family escaped Dahiyeh, Beirut’s southern suburbs, when an Israeli bombing destroyed a nearby residential building on September 20, killing 45 people.
Sourani’s family cannot travel to Cyprus by boat due to the high cost and visa procedures. They intended to cross the Syrian border and take a bus to Amman, Jordan, from which they would fly to Muscat, Oman, where her sister lives.
According to the Lebanese government, approximately 300,000 civilians have crossed into Syria in the last ten days to flee Israel’s air onslaught. On Friday morning, however, they awoke to the news that Israel had bombed Masnaa, Syria’s primary border crossing, after claiming that Hezbollah was exploiting it to transport weapons into Lebanon.
Sourani immediately called a travel agent, who was able to book her parents on separate flights a little more than a week from today. They were unable to go on the same flight due to a scarcity of available seats.
“I’m scared the airport will close before they get to go. I have been checking the calendar and counting the days. “Things are getting crazy every day,” Sourani stated. She refuses to leave because she wants to observe how the conflict impacts her neighbourhood in Achrafieh, east Beirut.
“I never considered or accepted the idea of fleeing Lebanon. I may have left here because I found a better opportunity elsewhere; such is life. But being forced to go would be unacceptable, according to Sourani.
Those who did manage to flee Lebanon had tough trips. Rasha Jabr, a 39-year-old humanitarian consultant, was scrambling to locate a seat on a journey for her and her daughter, who was set to begin university in Germany next week.
Her husband encouraged her to pack her belongings and head to the airport every day at 6 a.m. to be on standby in case someone did not show up for their trip. She was eventually able to secure a seat on a flight to the United Arab Emirates thanks to an inventive travel agent.
On Thursday night, while she was loading her belongings into the car to drive to the airport, the bombing began near her home in Choueifat, an area in Beirut’s southern suburbs. As we were putting out stuff in the car, black dust was falling all over us because of the chemicals in the missiles,” Jabr told me.
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Israel was carrying out some of the most intensive bombings since the start of the war, claiming they were targeting Hashem Safieddine, the likely successor of Hezbollah’s late secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by Israeli forces last week.
“I was in the airport during the bombing, wondering whether they would bomb the plane. “Will they bomb the airport?” Jabr spoke. With smoke from Israeli bombs visible from the airport, her plane took off and flew to the UAE. “I am more fortunate than others because I have the option because I have the residency in Dubai, but I have a feeling of hidden guilt, and that’s not something we can process easily,” Jabr said.
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