Brit urges parents in Lebanon to return to UK as home is rocked by Israeli airstrike

A British-Lebanese doctor who is desperate to get his parents back to the UK after an explosion rocked their home in Southern Lebanon fears the region will "become another Gaza".

Professor Ahmed Hankir, 42, says his mum and dad, who is in his 70s with mobility problems, have already risked fleeing the Southern Lebanese city of Sidon, and are now headed straight for the capital, Beirut, as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged up to 10,000 Brits to leave Lebanon immediately amid fears of all-out war with Israel.

Deadly Israeli airstrikes in the region have killed more than 700 people since Monday alone, including at least 50 children. According to the UN refugee agency, more than 30,000 people have crossed the border from Lebanon into Syria in the last 72 hours.

Prof Hankir, who lives between the UK and Canada, flew to Lebanon last month in an effort to persuade his parents, who both hold British passports, to come back to the UK. He told the Mirror: “My parents were in Southern Lebanon, but with the imminent ground invasion, the south is becoming increasingly precarious, so they’re on their way to Beirut as we speak.

Asked how they're able to make the journey without compromising their safety, Ahmed said: “I can't say it’s safe because the Israeli fighter jets have been dropping bombs in attacks that are not precise or targeted – they’re bombing roads, they’re bombing civilian infrastructure and they’re killing civilians. The building that my parents live in in Sidon, it shook – and they could feel the reverberations of that explosion. My parents are taking a risk, but it's a risk they have to take."

Prof Hankir, an award-winning doctor and author, feels it is only a matter of time before the region "becomes another Gaza", as fears of an Israeli military ground invasion increase. He said: "It will get worse."

"The international community drafted a proposal for a 21-day ceasefire, and the Israeli government rejected it. There was an opportunity to de-escalate, even if just temporarily, and they rejected it. Look at what happened in Gaza. It’s foreboding, it’s a nightmare that Lebanon does become another Gaza.”

He said his sister “still gets nightmares and traumatic flashbacks” from when she was evacuated from her home during the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war, and said of his parents: “They’ve been through this before, but now they’re older, they’re more vulnerable – there’s more factors to take into consideration.

"It seems like nowhere is safe in Lebanon anymore. If they’re targeting beach resorts, Christian majority areas, where is safe? It just seems as though the Israeli government can act with impunity. They have a carte blanche. They can do whatever they want to do. He added: "I’m terrified. Yesterday I felt a physical pain in my chest. An excruciating physical pain in my chest. And it’s not just me – there are many other Lebanese people who feel the same way."

Despite his fears, Prof Hankir considers himself one of the lucky ones, because his parents' British nationality means they're more likely to be able to evacuate to safety.

Mohammed Aboukhachab, from London, isn't as lucky. He says his family here in the UK have been "panicked" trying to find relatives back home in Southern Lebanon a safe place to stay as fighting escalates in the region. He said: “I’m Palestinian by origin, but my family emigrated to Lebanon after the first Nakba. A lot of them still live in refugee camps in the south, and over the last few days we’ve been panicked.

“Firstly, because we're trying to figure out how to convince these family members to evacuate their homes, and secondly, finding a way, and finding a safe place where they can actually stay." Following Keir Starmer's call on Brits to flee Lebanon, the 23-year-old accountant says he disagrees with the UK's approach.

He said: “I don’t think we have our priorities correct. I don’t think we should be telling people to evacuate, I think we need a full-out arms embargo. We need to address the root of the problem, which is Israeli violence across the Middle East. End it at the root. Stop providing arms, and you won’t have to give people a reason to have to evacuate.”