Beirut was “like a horror movie,” a man who returned to the UK from Lebanon told Sky News after witnessing Israel’s airstrikes first-hand.
Walid Assaf, who landed at Heathrow after taking the only commercial flight today from Lebanon to London, told Sky News he saw explosions as he left the country.
“It’s terrible,” he said. “They [Israel] are bombing everywhere, everything. We know it’s war but war against who? Against the civil people on the street?
“It’s a disaster. They are bombing outside the airport. It’s like a horror movie, really a horror movie. The airport is shaking.”
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Wiping away her husband’s tears, Sophia – who lives in the UK with Walid, said she believes the Israeli military’s actions in Lebanon “is a genocide”, as she demanded an “immediate ceasefire”.
“[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s given a warning last minute, but that’s not enough for people to get up and leave,” she said.
“He hasn’t even told them where to go. He’s done the same thing with Palestinians. He’s told them to move and go further up and he keeps bombing there.”
She added: “What is this? This is a genocide. He’s [Netanyahu] trying to do the same thing with Lebanon.
“The Lebanese have had enough. I’m English, and I’ve had enough. This should stop. World leaders need to put this to a stop – immediate ceasefire.”
Israel said it is bombing southern Lebanon in “precise” strikes to target Hezbollah commanders and said it is a response against the group, which fired rockets across the border following Hamas’s attacks on 7 October.
Tickets for the flight, which landed at 11.15am, were highly sought after and expensive. Families waiting for relatives to return to the UK held back tears as they stayed in Terminal 3.
Rola Razik and her husband Hussain, were waiting for his mother, Mounira. They had tried for over a week to book flights for her. Mounira, in her 80s, had visited her sister in a neighbourhood which was then hit by strikes.
Rola Razik and her husband’s mother Mounira
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They told Sky News flights got cancelled and prices soared. Rola said: “It’s been mind-blowing, very emotional, very stressful. How can you pack your whole life into one case in your eighties?”
After they reunited, Mounira told Sky News: “Thank god we are safe. We are sorry for those who are left behind who are losing their lives, children. So many people are there.”
Another woman, Solange, said she was waiting for her 13-year-old son Ali and that she feels “destroyed, angry, sad, disappointed and helpless” by events in Lebanon.
Solange, whose son returned from Beirut
She added: “We have been fighting this for years, and now our children are fighting it and we dread that our grandchildren will fight it as well.
“I would like the UK government to take in to consideration the humanitarian situation for Lebanon as a country.”
Kinda Alaissami also said her father, who is in his 70s and Syrian, took a taxi to Beirut airport and saw “bombs were going off around, so it was very scary, a horrible night”.
It comes as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed after Israeli airstrikes in Beirut on Friday, along with other commanders from the group.
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The Israel Defence Forces said in a statement: “Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorise the world.”
Hezbollah said it would fight on after Nasrallah’s death, and added it fired rockets at sites in northern Israel.
While Israel stressed it had been a “precise” strike, preliminary figures from Lebanon’s health ministry said at least six other people were killed and 91 were wounded.
Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, was also killed in the Israeli strikes on Beirut, according to Iranian state media.