While the French embassy in Lebanon managed to reserve 200 plane seats to allow the most vulnerable nationals to leave the country, others are still hesitant to leave despite the intensity of Israeli bombing.
The start of an exodus. This Thursday, October 3 at dawn, via a Middle East Airlines flight on which seats were reserved by the French embassy in Lebanon, around fifty “vulnerable” French nationals left Beirut and landed at the airport. of Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle, while Israel continues its offensive on the Cedar country.
Several of these passengers spoke to BFMTV and detailed their feelings after this hasty departure and the last trying days spent in the Lebanese capital.
“I am very sad to leave Lebanon in these circumstances, it should not have come to this,” regrets Émilie.
Bombings at night
For her part, Valérie remembers the bombings that occurred in recent days, which made daily life impossible in Beirut. “It was starting to get complicated because the bombings take place at night and it’s something you hear in every neighborhood,” she says.
“I would like to have a word for those who are still there and we really hope that the situation will improve, but for the moment, it is complicated. The French community is starting to ask itself a lot of questions, we are all worried,” adds the latter, visibly moved.
“I’m at home”
On site, the French-speaking community is divided, between wanting to stay in Lebanon, or leaving the country in the face of the growing intensity of Israeli bombings. “There, that’s where they bombed last night, it continues to smoke, burn, collapse,” points out Michèle from her balcony, a Franco-Lebanese who lives in the southern suburbs of the capital, the most affected by the raids of the Hebrew State.
“I’m at home, I don’t want the violence to dislodge me, so I prefer to stay. It’s my way of resisting,” she says, as bombings hit buildings neighboring hers.
For their part, the members of a family living in Beirut for several years now are asking themselves the question of an early departure in the face of the increase in bombings.
“We’ve been in Beirut for six years and we ask ourselves this question quite regularly. We experienced the revolution, all the crises, the explosion at the port and now this tragic situation. Yes, we ask ourselves the question like a lot of dual nationals who have the possibility of leaving, because not everyone has it,” explains Géraldine.
Difficult start
While many international companies have temporarily suspended their connections to Lebanon, only some local companies continue to operate. But places are rare, and prices have exploded in the space of a few days.
In total, 200 places have been reserved by the embassy to repatriate fragile, elderly, sick people who need treatment. Pregnant women and young children are also affected.
At the start of the week, a French Navy vessel set sail from the south-east of France to pre-position itself off the coast of Lebanon as a “precaution”. in the event of a need to evacuate French nationals.
