Australians fleeing Lebanon will reach home soil on Monday

[Pelican Press 0]

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Australians fleeing Lebanon will reach home soil on Monday

The first Australians returning home after being evacuated from Lebanon amid the growing conflict will arrive in Sydney on Monday night.

Just over 900 Australians and their family members have left Beirut on flights organised by the Federal Government since late last week.

Another two flights are scheduled to leave for Cyprus on Monday.

******** air attacks battered the Lebanese capital overnight in the most intense bombardment since ******* escalated its ******** on the Iran-backed ********** group Hezbollah.

During Saturday night and into Sunday morning, the blasts sent booms across Beirut and sparked flashes of red and white for nearly 30 minutes visible from several kilometres away, Reuters reported.

Ministers have been urging Australians in Lebanon to leave for months now, and warning people not to travel to the country because of the risk of the conflict escalating.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Sunday it was “a blessing” the Beirut airport remained open, but warned that could change quickly since it was located near a suburb with a known Hezbollah presence.

At the moment, there are 3756 Australians and their family registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as wanting to leave Lebanon.

A spokesperson said the Government understood it was a very distressing time for Australians in Lebanon, and they were continuing to plan evacuation flights but all were subject to the security situation and operational capacity.

Qantas is putting on planes from Cyprus, where the evacuation flights are landing, to return people to Australia, with the first of these carrying almost 350 people expected to arrive in Sydney on Monday evening.

The flights are free to the people fleeing Lebanon.

A Qantas spokesperson said Red Cross staff would meet the passengers in Sydney to provide psychological first aid and other referral support to people returning home.

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