Airlines are increasingly suspending flights to Beirut as tensions rise.
The U.S. embassy stressed that “commercial travel options to leave Lebanon remain available,” and advised those who choose to stay to “prepare contingency plans for emergencies and be prepared for a prolonged evacuation.”
Israel on Tuesday launched a retaliatory airstrike on the Lebanese capital Beirut that killed a senior commander of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, raising fears that it could spark an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The conflict with Israel has entered a “new phase,” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address Thursday, vowing that “the response will come either dispersedly or simultaneously.”
In Sweden, Foreign Minister Tobias Wilstrom closed the Swedish embassy in Beirut on Saturday and urged all Swedes to leave the country as soon as possible, saying support for foreigners would become increasingly difficult.
“The Foreign Ministry has instructed its staff to leave Beirut and travel to Cyprus, and the ministry plans to temporarily relocate the embassy,” Bilstrom told public broadcaster SR.
