‘More will die’: 15k Aussies still in Lebanon

Some 15,000 Australians are still in Lebanon as Israeli troops invade and Iranian missiles fly into Israel.

The Australian government has guaranteed 100 seats on commercial flights out of Lebanon, one of which departed on Tuesday and one of which is scheduled for Wednesday night.

Speaking on Channel 9 on Wednesday, an Australian woman in Lebanon said she was safe but innocent people were dying as the attacks by Israeli forces, Iran and Hezbollah became more intense.

“I’m fortunate to be a bit away from all of this, but it’s innocent people who want to live on their land in peace. They’re the ones who are dying,” she told the Today show.

“And more will die should the invasion proceed.”

On Tuesday Australian time, Israeli troops invaded Lebanon to hunt Hezbollah targets.

“What’s sad is, it’s people who have no power to match what is being thrown at them; they’re really defenceless people who will die. And that’s not OK,” the Australian woman, identified as Julia Doueihi, said.

The Israel Defence Forces troops have crossed the border into southern Lebanon.

Ms Doueihi said southern Lebanese people were strong and the area was beautiful.

“I wish I can tell you about the south. How beautiful and how magical it is. And it has such a strong pull. Lebanese people in general are wonderful,” she said.

“They’re kind, they’re welcoming, they’re warm. But there’s something about the people who live in the south; they are so connected to the land.

“And I think it must be because they’ve been through so much atrocities and they’ve persevered.”

In April 1996, near Qana, a village in then Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon, the Israeli military fired artillery shells at a United Nations compound that was sheltering about 800 Lebanese civilians, killing 106 and injuring around 116.

“You know, I can tell you my husband, he was only seven when the Qana massacre happened in 1996,” Ms Doueihi said.

“He still remembers so vividly the screams, the terror. Yet he’s the one who’s reassuring me in all this. He’s the one who’s more optimistic, whereas I’m personally petrified.”

Speaking on Channel 7 on Wednesday morning, federal cabinet member Clare O’Neil said 15,000 Australians were still in Lebanon.

The federal government has been urging citizens to leave Lebanon for months.

“Clearly to those people in Lebanon it is not a safe place for you to be,” Ms O’Neil said.

“Please get on commercial flights if you have those openings available. We can’t keep all our citizens safe at a time like this.

“If you are in Australia watching and you have relatives there, get them on a flight right now.

“It is a tinderbox environment and we don’t want Australians in harm’s way.”

About 8pm local time on Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said all 10 million of its citizens were subject to instructions to get to bomb shelters.

Iran struck Israel with 180 missiles, it said, to avenge the deaths of allied Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and strike “the heart of the occupied territories”.

The US says the missile attack appeared to be “defeated and ineffective”. One death has been reported.

Elsewhere, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported that Israeli attacks killed 55 people and wounded 156 in Lebanon on Tuesday.

The Palestinian Mujahidin Movement, also known as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, took responsibility for a shooting in southern Tel Aviv on Tuesday that killed eight people and injured nine more, NBC News reports.

More than 41,500 Gazans have been killed in the past 12 months. On Tuesday, Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed 13 people in a refugee camp, seven people in a tent west of Khan Younis, six in a car west of Khan Younis and three people north of Rafah, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.