The US Embassy in Beirut is calling on Americans to leave Lebanon as soon as possible as the war between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies.
“US citizens in Lebanon are strongly encouraged to depart now,” the embassy said in a notice to citizens on Monday. “US citizens who choose not to depart at this time should prepare contingency plans should the situation deteriorate further.”
Just 1,100 of the estimated 86,000 Americans who live in Lebanon have fled the nation so far, with the US setting aside thousands of seats on flights out of Lebanon since Sept. 27, according to the State Department.
The embassy, however, warned that the flights “will not continue indefinitely,” urging all Americans in Lebanon to make a decision sooner rather than later.
Embassy officials stressed that any plans for those who choose not to leave “should not rely on the US government for assisted departure or evacuations.”
The notice comes after other nations had already issued evacuation orders for their citizens in Lebanon following heavy airstrikes from Israel in Beirut and intense fighting along the border with Hezbollah.
The US had previously received criticism for not being proactive enough during evacuation calls earlier this month.
Samer Bawab, a Lebanese American citizen from Cleveland, said it took about two weeks for the State Department to schedule him a flight out of Lebanon.
“My problem was there wasn’t enough flights to get out, there is only one airline still operating, Middle East Airlines, and that’s sold out until November,” he told ABC News.
Bawab lamented that Lebanon has become too dangerous to live in, a reality made clear to him when an Israeli airstrike shook his Beirut home, an area the Israeli military has continued to hit as it targets Hezbollah’s hidden command posts.
His concerns were echoed by fellow American Hana Bechara, who found the embassy and State Department’s initial guidance vague and unhelpful when she tried to schedule a flight out of Lebanon.
Bechara told The Intercept that her government wasn’t providing any financial help to pay for the expensive flights to safety despite the constant bombings in Beirut.
Amy Fallas, another American living in Beirut, said her government’s response now paled in comparison to when they helped her evacuate from Egypt during the violent 2011 protests in Cairo.
“I have absolutely no faith in that anymore, and so what I would want from the U.S. is some effort to try to restore that trust — because at this point, a lot of us do feel like we were abandoned to figure things out on our own,” she told The Intercept.