Pinoys in Lebanon told: Leave while you still can

The Department of Foreign Affairs on Sunday appealed to Filipinos in Lebanon to leave the country while the airport in Beirut is still open amid the escalating cross-border attacks between Israel and Hezbollah militants.

“While it’s still early, I hope they will go home to the Philippines because the situation in Lebanon may escalate and a war may erupt,” Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Eduardo de Vega said on Sunday, a day after the Philippines raised Alert Level 3 to pave the way for the voluntary repatriation of Filipinos in Lebanon.

Over 17,500 Filipinos are living in Lebanon, of which 67 reside at the border where Hezbollah is stationed.

AID TRICKLES IN. People transport jerricans of water in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Oct. 22, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. Since the start of the war, Israel has cut off supplies of water, electricity, fuel and food to the Palestinian enclave of 2.4 million people. (Left) Aerial view shows humanitarian aid trucks arriving from Egypt after having crossed through the Rafah border crossing. AFP

Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel risk “dragging Lebanon into a war,” Israel’s military said Sunday, after renewed cross-border exchanges of fire that have raised fears of a wider conflict.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is allied with Hamas, which touched off the latest violence with a bloody October 7 rampage in Israel that killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.

Israel has retaliated with relentless strikes on the Iran-backed Hamas in the Gaza Strip that have killed more than 4,300 Palestinians, also mainly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

It has also exchanged fire with Hezbollah across its northern border, with Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Jonathan Conricus accusing the group of a dangerous escalation.

“Hezbollah… is dragging Lebanon into a war that it will gain nothing from, but stands to lose a lot,” Conricus said.

“Hezbollah is playing a very, very dangerous game. They’re escalating the situation. We see more and more attacks every day,” he said.

“Is the Lebanese state really willing to jeopardize what is left of Lebanese prosperity and Lebanese sovereignty for the sake of terrorists in Gaza? That’s a question that the Lebanese authorities need to ask themselves and answer.”

Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Israel’s military have been trading fire almost daily since Oct. 7.

Weekend exchanges of fire have killed four Hezbollah fighters and a member of Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad in Lebanon, while three Israeli troops were injured, one seriously, in Hezbollah anti-tank fire, and two Thai farm workers were also wounded.

On Sunday morning, the army said its forces “identified a terrorist cell attempting to launch anti-tank missiles toward the Avivim area along the border with Lebanon.”

“IDF soldiers struck the cell before it was able to carry out the attack,” a statement from the military said.

Since Oc. 7, exchanges of fire across the border have killed at least four people in Israel – three soldiers and one civilian.

In southern Lebanon, at least 27 people have been killed, according to an AFP tally. Most have been combatants but at least four civilians, including a Reuters journalist, have also been killed.

Israel has ordered dozens of northern communities to evacuate, and several thousand Lebanese have also fled border regions for the southern city of Tyre.

On Sunday, the Israeli defense ministry said they were evacuating 14 additional communities from the area.

Hezbollah number two Naim Qassem has warned the group could step up its involvement in the conflict.

“Let’s be clear, as events unfold, if something comes up that calls for greater intervention by us, we will do so,” he said.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah fought a devastating war with Israel in 2006 that left more than 1,200 dead in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 dead in Israel, mostly soldiers.

Israeli strikes on Sunday also put out of service war-torn Syria’s two main airports, state media reported citing a military source, with the transport ministry saying flights were re-routed to Latakia.

While Israeli strikes have repeatedly caused the grounding of flights at the government-controlled airports in the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, it is the second time simultaneous strikes have hit the facilities since this month’s conflict between Israel and Hamas began.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes it carries out on Syria, but it has repeatedly said it will not allow its arch foe Iran, which supports President Bashar al-Assad’s government, to expand its presence there.

As this developed, UN chief Antonio Guterres pleaded Saturday for a “humanitarian ceasefire” in the war between Israel and Hamas militants that has devastated much of Gaza, demanding “action to end this godawful nightmare.”

Addressing a Cairo summit that ultimately proved fruitless, according to Arab diplomats, Guterres said the Palestinian enclave of 2.4 million people was living through “a humanitarian catastrophe” with thousands dead and more than a million displaced.

According to Arab diplomats who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, the meeting in Cairo failed to reach an agreement, with Western representatives seeking “a clear condemnation placing responsibility for the escalation on Hamas,” which Arab leaders refused.

The Western officials also wanted to call for the release of those held by Hamas.

Egypt’s presidency instead released a statement – drafted with the approval of Arab attendees, the diplomats said – saying the war had laid bare “a defect in the values of the international community.”

World leaders have long “sought to manage the conflict, and not end it permanently, by proposing temporary solutions and palliatives that do not live up to even the lowest aspirations of a suffering people,” the statement read.

In response, Israel bemoaned the lack of a condemnation of what it called “Islamic terror” that endangered the region and entire world.

“It is unfortunate that even when faced with those horrific atrocities, there were some who had difficulty condemning terrorism or acknowledging the danger,” a foreign ministry statement said.

“Israel will do what it has to do and expects the international community to recognize the righteous battle.” With AFP