Israel strikes Hezbollah: US orders diplomats’ families to leave Lebanon

Washington : The US State Department on Saturday ordered the families of embassy personnel in Beirut to leave the country and authorized the departure of some staff, as the Israel-Hezbollah conflict escalates.

The department ordered the departure “due to the increased volatility following airstrikes within Beirut and the volatile and unpredictable security situation throughout Lebanon,” it said. All US citizens were urged to leave “while commercial options still remain available.”
Germany also said it would withdraw diplomats’ families and reduce staffing at its missions in Israel, Lebanon and the West Bank after the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah by Israel.

In a statement the foreign ministry said its crisis cell had met on Saturday to discuss “the highly tense situation in Lebanon and the wider region after the latest attacks” and had decided “to raise the crisis level for the missions in Beirut, Ramallah and Tel Aviv”. “In concrete terms this means that family members of personnel posted there will leave and travel to a safe location in the region or in Germany,” the ministry said.

It added that “posted personnel will be thinned out, while taking care to ensure that the missions will still be able to carry out the full range of their work”. Germany currently has travel warnings in place for its citizens for Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.