News between Israel and Iran: Israeli attack “kills three in Syria” – as well as eight IDF soldiers killed in fighting in Lebanon | World News

The first charter flight to bring Brits home from Lebanon has taken off, the Foreign Secretary has confirmed.

David Lammy said another flight was planned for tomorrow and more would be organized in the coming days if it was safe to do so.

A Sky News team in Beirut spoke to Brits who managed to secure a spot on the flight.

They tell us how they feel as the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalates.

Isobel cone, 31who studies at the American University of Beirut, says she “waited it out” in the west of the capital but decided to leave when strikes broke out near her home.

“Everyone was messaging my parents, my family, my friends… there were a lot of people,” she says.

Isobel says the situation is “surreal” and she only received an email this morning saying she had to be on a flight at 3pm.

“I brought the essentials, just ran, prepared everything and came here,” she says.

In the meantime, 73-year-old Noura Abi-Chahine leaves to stay with her daughter in London.

“She urged me to come over,” she tells us, adding that she understands her concern as she herself was in the British capital during the 1982 war while her parents were in Lebanon.

Noura, who lives near the American University of Beirut, says there are currently “no safe places” in Lebanon – adding that she sees “no hope” for peace in the region.

“The scale of atrocities, monstrosities and massacres… it has never been like this.”

“The Middle East has always been a place of turmoil, we have seen a lot, but this seems to be the worst,” she says.

Youssef Bochor, who is just 16 years oldHe travels to the UK for the first time to stay with his brother in Birmingham.

He says flights from Lebanon are difficult to get because the flight he was supposed to take yesterday was canceled.

When asked how he felt about saying goodbye, he replied that it was “hard,” but “it’s okay, I’ll be back.”

He says that people of his generation “take it as a joke.” “They’re like whatever, it’s okay, we’re going through it… what can we do? There’s nothing we can do.”

Jad Tawil, 22He lives in Beirut with his grandmother and aunts. He had to say goodbye to them today to travel to the UK.

“The situation is getting worse, it is better for me to leave,” he tells us. He says he feels both happy and guilty that he can seek safety with his parents and siblings in London.

Like Isobel, he only found out at work this morning that he would be taking a flight today.

Jad says his home is about five minutes from the bombing site. “I can feel it and hear it, especially at night.”