The German government is making increasingly clear calls for Germans to leave Lebanon. So far, many do not seem to be heeding the call. An evacuation mission could quickly end in chaos.
“I want to get out now,” says Dilek Gürsel, who works for the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Lebanon. She fears: “Perhaps leaving Lebanon could soon become much more complicated.” That is, if a war breaks out between Israel and the Hezbollah militia supported by Iran.
But Gürsel quickly discovered that it is not that easy to get a seat on one of the few flights from Beirut. European airlines have long since stopped flying to Lebanon. Other connections have recently been canceled at short notice. In any case, the price of one-way tickets has skyrocketed since last week.
At least 3,000 Germans still in Lebanon
In recent days, the Foreign Office has made an increasingly clear appeal to the at least 3,000 Germans who are still in Lebanon: “We call on all Germans to leave the country urgently.”
No one should rely on the German government to get them out if war breaks out. “An evacuation operation is not a package tour with travel cancellation insurance, but is associated with dangers and uncertainties,” said a spokesman for the Foreign Office. On Thursday, the embassy in Beirut sent a letter to its compatriots that expressed similar things in different words. It also said that an evacuation mission was not imminent, and that the German government was only making “theoretical preparations” in the event of war.
Gürsel is therefore continuing to try to leave the country on a commercial flight. If she can still buy one of the coveted tickets, she will probably take a taxi to the airport. Then she could look out of the right window at the shimmering green Mediterranean Sea, and out of the left window at Hezbollah territory.
Some of the southern suburbs of the city are firmly in the hands of the Shiite militia, a close ally of Iran. There, just over a week ago, Israel killed an important Hezbollah commander in an air strike – less than two kilometers from Beirut airport. Just one day later, Israel had Hamas leader Ismail Haniya killed in Iran.
Since then, the Middle East has been anxiously awaiting a large-scale counterattack by Iran, in which Hezbollah would probably also participate. This could escalate the simmering conflict between Israel and Iran into a regional war, fought on Lebanese territory.
Would Israel bomb Beirut airport?
It is completely unclear whether a plane will even be able to land to evacuate the Germans. The ministry is concerned that everything could be the same as in 2006: on the second day of the last Lebanon war, Israeli warships bombed the runway at Beirut airport. There is no other runway for passenger planes in the entire country.
The Foreign Office had to find other ways back then. The ministry had thousands of Germans travel by bus to Damascus airport in Syria, others to Adana in Turkey. These routes are now blocked. So the only option left is by sea.
Despite everything, hundreds of holidaymakers still seem to be staying in Lebanon today. In the summer months, many Germans with Lebanese roots traditionally fly to see their families. The Foreign Office noted with incomprehension: “Despite the existing travel warning and request to leave the country, we have seen that Germans have continued to travel to Lebanon in recent weeks.” Since the beginning of last week, the number of people on the Foreign Office’s crisis list has doubled.
Gürsel, who now wants to leave but hopes to be able to return to Beirut soon, says: “Some want to be with their family if something bad happens. Especially if their relatives cannot leave because they cannot get a visa for Europe.”
“The warnings don’t seem to be working”
Katrin Prütz runs a beauty salon and a German restaurant north of Beirut. She says: “The German-Lebanese are still coming to us. The warnings don’t seem to be working.”
People in Lebanon have long since become accustomed to the warnings of Western governments. The country has been on the verge of being drawn into war every day since at least the beginning of the Gaza war. Many in Lebanon react to this with stoic optimism, along the lines of: It won’t be that bad.
An attitude that the German woman has long since adopted. In her 18 years in Lebanon, she has learned: “If you don’t stay positive, you worry so much that you can hardly survive here,” she says on the phone. And she still lives very comfortably in her house in the mountains – far away from Hezbollah positions. Prütz wants to stay.
Relying on the Bundeswehr to rescue is “irresponsible”
The optimism is of little help to the Bundeswehr, however. Every German who has to be evacuated increases the risks of the operation. “If the impression is created that the Air Force is doing this off the cuff, then that is a false impression,” says Arne Collatz, press spokesman for the Ministry of Defense.
If Germans in Lebanon refuse to leave because they trust in rescue by the Bundeswehr, this is “irresponsible, also towards the soldiers involved”. In the letter to compatriots, the embassy writes to those affected: If the situation worsens, Germans could be left to fend for themselves for weeks.
By issuing the early request to leave, the German government apparently wants to prevent an evacuation mission from Beirut from being as chaotic as the one from Kabul in 2021. At that time, the Foreign Office warned far too late. The German armed forces took great risks, which was the only reason why thousands of civilians could be flown out of Afghanistan. After eleven days, the mission had to be aborted – it had become too dangerous to land in Kabul.
It is unclear where ships could dock
If air traffic is no longer possible via Beirut, Germans would probably have to be brought to Cyprus by ferry or warship. The government there offered the island as a hub for evacuation operations on Thursday. The only thing that is unclear is where German ships could dock in Lebanon: The port of Beirut is “not fully operational” after the gigantic explosion four years ago, according to the Foreign Office.
An evacuation mission from Lebanon, should the Foreign Office decide on it, is fraught with great uncertainty – for the soldiers of the Bundeswehr as well as for the evacuees. For Katrin Prütz, however, returning to Germany seems to be the greater risk: “I have everything in Lebanon,” she says, her income, her employees, her friends. “I have nothing left in Germany.” She says she only wants to return to Germany if it becomes really dangerous.
: She is in her restaurant when suddenly there is a loud bang and the walls shake. “That was it! That was one!” she shouts and runs away from the window. At first she thinks it’s an Israeli bomb that has hit, that the war has just started. False alarm: An Israeli jet has broken the sound barrier over Prütz’s head. Once again everything went well. The only question is: for how long?
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
