Over 1,100 Americans Have Fled Lebanon

The U.S. State Department said more than 1,100 Americans have been forced to flee Lebanon as the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies, the New York Post reported on Wednesday.

Last week, the U.S. began organizing aircraft offering safe harbor out of the conflict zone with 50 people boarding the latest flight to Istanbul on Wednesday. "We’ve had some flights go out with around 150 people, and we’ve had these other flights with fewer, but it is going to be an ongoing question we look at, an ongoing assessment that we make," said U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller to reporters.

Earlier in the day, the State Department warned Israel that it did not want to see a repeat of the kind of intense ground assault undertaken in Gaza that has resulted in tens of thousands dead and millions more displaced. "We cannot — and must not — see the situation in Lebanon turn into anything like the situation in Gaza," Miller added.

The Israel Defense Forces has made it clear it has no intention of dialing back its attacks in Lebanon noting that it has made more than 1,100 airstrikes in the past several weeks. Following the targeted strike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in September, Israel announced Tuesday it had successfully targeted his successor Suhail Husseini in Beirut.

The region has been in a state of perpetual conflict since Hamas slaughtered more than 1,200 Israelis on Oct 7, 2023. Tensions only intensified when Israel killed Nasrallah and Iran responded with a missile attack last week deep into the heart of the Jewish state. While the world waits for the IDF to follow through on its promise of a response, Israel has vowed not to let Hezbollah regroup.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi told the Times of Israel, that airstrikes will continue in Lebanon so as "not to allow any respite or recovery" by Hezbollah. "Our strike will be powerful, precise, and above all, surprising," Halevi said. "They will not understand what happened and how it happened."