SIR Keir Starmer has urged Brits in Lebanon to “leave immediately” as 700 UK troops are scrambled to Cyprus to help with any mass evacuation.
The Middle-Eastern country appears to be on the brink of being the battleground between Israel and Iran-backed militia Hezbollah, who are being bombarded by intensifying waves of airstrikes.
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The Sun in August reported crack Royal Marines were deployed to Cyprus with orders to prepare for a “non-combatant evacuation”.
Brit troops will now be deployed to the Mediterranean island in case a full-scale evacuation of Lebanon is ordered.
Defence Secretary John Healey confirmed the military plans last night as all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel loomed.
After chairing a COBRA meeting, he said: “Events in the past hours and days have demonstrated how volatile this situation is, which is why our message is clear, British nationals should leave now.
“We continue to urge all sides to step back from conflict to prevent further tragic loss of life.
“Our government is ensuring all preparations are in place to support British Nationals should the situation deteriorate.
“I want to thank the British personnel who are deploying in the region for their commitment and professionalism.”
The Cobra meeting chaired by Mr Healey was attended by intelligence chiefs and diplomats and provided an opportunity to test government planning.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said last night: “The most important message from me this evening is to British nationals in Lebanon, to leave immediately and I just want to reinforce that.
“Yes, we are ramping up the contingency plans, I think that you would expect that in light of the escalation.
“But it is important that we be really, really clear: now is the time to leave.
“More broadly, I am worried about the situation and I think we need to be clear we need de-escalation, we need a ceasefire, we need to pull back from the brink.
“I think that will be amongst the first topics we discuss in New York.”
It’s understood a smaller fleet of troops are already in Lebanon and stand ready to assist if the conflict spirals out of control.
The Foreign Office advises against all travel to Lebanon.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy has already urged Brits currently there to leave “while commercial options remain”.
He wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Tensions are high and the situation could deteriorate rapidly.”
It’s feared there may be more than 10,000 British nationals still in Lebanon despite the alerts.
Pager and walkie-talkie explosions – followed by intense Israeli bombardments in recent days – have reportedly increased fears among UK defence chiefs.
Israel is vowing to keep ratcheting up the airstrikes against Hezbollah as they blitz the terror group in what has now been dubbed Operation “Northern Arrows” by the Israeli military.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanese citizens in known Hezbollah strongholds to leave their homes and only return once his forces are finished blasting away their adversaries.
The Israeli Defence Force hit Hezbollah targets in a massive wave of airstrikes on Monday and Tuesday, many of which are civilian homes allegedly being used to store rockets.
At least 558 people have been killed, including dozens of children, and at least 1,835 injured, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Late Tuesday afternoon the IDF announced it had begun an “extensive wave” of attacks on “terrorist targets” in Lebanon.
US officials told CNN that Hezbollah has been significantly weakened by the attacks which had taken them backwards by about 20 years.
Israel has wiped out most of the terror group’s leadership in targeted strikes, including Ibrahim Aqil who was killed in an IDF blast on southern Beirut on Friday.
On Tuesday, leading commander Ibrahim Qubaisi in the group’s rocket division was killed in the suburbs of Beirut, Reuters reported.
Bombs have also targeted ammo stores, with clips of the strikes showing houses in residential areas being wiped.
The IDF claims Hezbollah are hiding cruise missiles, including medium-range rockets and short-range rockets, and even unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in civilian homes.
IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said: “We will continue to show what Hezbollah has been doing over the past twenty years, in a vast project where they have turned thousands of civilian homes in southern Lebanon and not only in southern Lebanon, into terror bases, turning southern Lebanon into a combat zone.”
The US is also worried that Iran could intervene as Israel keeps up the attacks, sparking a massive regional war.
The need for a contingency plan was underlined as more airlines cancelled flights to Lebanon on Tuesday.
Airlines in the United Arab Emirates, a key East-West travel hub, cancelled flights on Tuesday.
Long-haul carriers Emirates and Etihad cancelled flights, as did FlyDubai, the low-cost carrier.
EgyptAir also cancelled flights to Lebanon.
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