Indian nationals ‘strongly advised’ to leave Lebanon; government mulls evacuation plans

A man walks past destruction caused by Israeli airstrikes in the Masaken neighbourhood on the outskirts of Tyre in Lebanon on September 26, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

India has “strongly advised” its nationals to leave Lebanon. An advisory issued by the Embassy of India in Beirut has advised Indian citizens to not to travel to Lebanon which has been targeted by Israeli bombing raids over the past three days. Official sources have informed that the Government of India is contemplating evacuation of Indian nationals from Lebanon in view of the deteriorating security situation in the country.

“All Indian nationals already in Lebanon are also strongly advised to leave Lebanon. Those who remain for any reason are advised to exercise extreme caution, restrict their movements and remain in contact with Embassy of India in Beirut through our email ID: cons.beirut@mea.gov.in or the emergency phone number +96176860128,” the Embassy of India said in a public notification.

This is the first advisory by India since the pager attacks targeted Lebanon a week earlier. Subsequently, Israel carried out bombing raids targeting southern Lebanon and capital Beirut. In retaliation, Hezbollah, the armed Lebanese group launched rockets and missiles that have hit northern Israeli cities like Safed, and the second largest city and the port of Haifa. On Wednesday, a ballistic missile fired by Hezbollah was intercepted above Israeli capital Tel Aviv.

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Air service with Beirut has been repeatedly disrupted over the past weeks as several leading airlines have cancelled flights to and from Beirut. In view of this, discussion is currently underway in the South Block about carrying out a naval evacuation of Indians through the port of Beirut. A similar naval evacuation of Indian nationals was carried out in 2006 when Israel had bombed Lebanon. At that time, four ships were deployed under Operation Sukoon to evacuate around 12,000 nationals from Lebanon. Operation Sukoon also rescued nationals from other countries like Sri Lanka

Lebanon at present hosts around 3,000 Indians, sources have confirmed. A similar naval and air evacuation was also carried out from Libya in February 2011.

The Embassy of India had issued a similar advisory on 1 August as the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel had been heating up in the backdrop of the Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip.