Sunday, 22 December 2024

US Embassy Tells All Americans In Israel, West Bank To Shelter In Place

ZeroHedge
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Update(1125ET): With proverbial all hell breaking loose in Lebanon, amid an Israeli ground incursion in the south and heavy bombings of Beirut suburbs, and now with the 'imminent' threat of an Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel - the US Embassy in Israel has raised its alert level.

All US citizens have been ordered to shelter in place:

The United States Embassy in Israel has just issued a statement directing all US “government employees and their family members to shelter in place until further notice”.

The security alert came after a White House official said that the US had indications that Iran was preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel.

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Germany has become the first Western country to initiative an emergency evacuation of its citizens from Lebanon utilizing military transport planes amid the rapidly deteriorating security situation.

Some 110 passengers were flown out of Beirut international airport in an initial flight on a German air force A321 plane on Monday. The group included diplomats and non-essential staff from the German embassy as well as their families. German citizens who with medical conditions were also on this first flight out.

German air force A321 plane, via planespotters.net

Essential personnel at Germany's embassy in Beirut have remained, in order to help facilitate the safe exit of the estimated 1,800 German citizens still in the country.

"German nationals who are particularly at risk due to medical circumstances are also being taken," a statement of the military transport flight. 

More such military facilitated flights are likely, but a timeline is unclear at this point. There's an expectation of wider war as Israeli builds up military forces along the border for an 'imminent' ground incursion into south Lebanon. 

Israel has also for the first time since 2006 begun striking targets in central Beirut. An estimated one million people throughout the country, but especially in the south, have been displaced thus far.

A German government spokesman announced Monday that "we are currently at a stage where we support the departure (of citizens) but we are explicitly not in an evacuation scenario."

The statement emphasized that "all Germans in Lebanon have been urged to leave the country since October 2023."

However, given the almost complete halt to commercial airline traffic at Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport, and the fact that Germany had to utilize a military flight to get its diplomats and citizens out in a first wave, it sure looks like this is the start of an evacuation scenario.

Currently the US and UK have troops positioned in nearby Cyprus, ready to help if those countries order military-assisted evacuations.


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