Passengers are mainly vulnerable people. France has made an A400M military transport plane available to repatriate around fifty departing volunteers from Lebanon, expected in Paris on Tuesday, we learned from three sources close to the matter.
According to one of these sources close to the French authorities, the passengers are mainly vulnerable people who were unable to find a plane ticket to leave the country. These sources confirmed information revealed earlier online by the Journal du Dimanche.
France had reserved a few hundred seats on commercial flights last week for its sick nationals and for elderly or isolated people. There are an estimated 24,000 French passport holders in the country, mainly dual nationals. At the same time, “a Franco-Qatari humanitarian flight will land in Beirut” this Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced to the National Assembly, without specifying the nature of the load.
The expanded Israeli offensive
Israel said on Tuesday that it had expanded its ground offensive launched at the end of September against the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon, after deploying additional troops there and calling on residents to avoid the coastal area. At the same time, Israel carried out airstrikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for rocket attacks on military sites as well as on the city of Haifa, in northern Israel. Around 85 projectiles were fired according to the Israeli army. Most rockets are regularly intercepted.
Since October 2023, more than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, including more than 1,110 since September 23, according to an AFP count based on official figures. More than a million people have been displaced.
