British citizens should leave Lebanon immediately and should not travel to northern Israel or the Golan Heights due to the risk of an all-out war, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said during an address to parliament on Tuesday.
“We will do all we can to prevent the outbreak of full-scale conflict,” Lammy said, stressing that “the risk is rising.”
“I therefore want to underline the government's advice to British nationals, we advise against all travel to the north of Israel and the north of the Golan Heights, and against all travel to Lebanon,” he stated.
Lammy referenced the cross-border violence between the IDF and Hezbollah along that northern border, including the Hezbollah strike that killed 12 children at a soccer field in the Golan Heights.
An Israeli citizen was also killed along the northern border on Tuesday.
“There are frequent artillery exchanges and air strikes. Tensions are high, and the situation could deteriorate rapidly.” Lammy stated.
'No guarantee gov't will be able to evacuate everyone'
“If this conflict escalates, the government cannot guarantee we'll be able to evacuate everyone immediately,” he said.
Those who do not heed these instructions, he said, “may be forced to shelter in place.”
“History teaches us that in a crisis like this one, it is far safer to leave while commercial flights are still running rather than running the risk of becoming trapped in a war zone.
“My message then to British nationals in Lebanon is therefore quite simple: leave,” he said.
The United States has asked that its citizens not to travel to southern Lebanon.
Greece's Aegean Airlines and Germany's Condor canceled flights to Beirut on Tuesday, the latest airlines to suspend services to the Lebanese capital in recent days as tensions escalate between Israel and the armed political group Hezbollah.Aegean said it would suspend flights until Thursday, while Condor canceled Tuesday's flight from Dusseldorf.
Air France AIRF.PA and Lufthansa Group LHAG.DE carriers Swiss, Eurowings, and Lufthansa announced flight cancellations on Monday.
A number of other carriers have suspended, delayed, or canceled some flights, although Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport listed arrivals on Tuesday from airlines including Pegasus, Emirates, Royal Jordanian, EgyptAir, Iran Air, Qatar Airways, and Etihad.
Reuters contributed to this report