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Beirut ‘like a horror movie’: Families return from Lebanon after fleeing Israeli bombings | World News

Beirut ‘like a horror movie’: Families return from Lebanon after fleeing Israeli bombings | World News

Beirut is “like a horror movie”, a man who returned to the UK from Lebanon told Sky News after witnessing the Israeli airstrikes first hand.

Walid Assaf, who landed at Heathrow today after taking the only commercial flight Lebanon As he traveled to London, he told Sky News he saw explosions as he left the country.

“It’s terrible,” he said. “She [Israel] bomb everywhere, everything. We know it’s war, but war against whom? Against the civilian population on the streets?

“It’s a disaster. They bomb the airport. It’s like a horror movie, really a horror movie. The airport is shaking.”

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Sophia, who lives with Walid in the UK, wiped away her husband’s tears and said she believed in it Israeli She described the military’s actions in Lebanon as “genocide” as she called for an “immediate ceasefire.”

“[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahus I got a last minute warning, but it’s not enough for people to get up and leave,” she said.

“He didn’t even tell them where to go. He did the same with the Palestinians. He told them to keep going up and he kept bombing there.”

She added: “What is this? This is genocide. It’s him.” [Netanyahu] I’m trying to do the same with Lebanon.

“The Lebanese have had enough. I’m English and I’ve had enough. This should stop. World leaders must put an end to this – immediate ceasefire.”

Israel said it was bombing southern Lebanon with “precise” strikes on the target Hezbollah Commanders said it was a response against the group that fired rockets across the border after Hamas attacks on October 7.

Tickets for the flight, which landed at 11:15 a.m., were in high demand and expensive. Families waiting for their relatives to return to the UK held back tears as they remained in Terminal 3.

Rola Razik and her husband Hussain were waiting for his mother Mounira. They had been trying to book flights for her for over a week. Mounira, 80, had visited her sister in a neighborhood that was hit by strikes at the time.

Rola Razik and her husband's mother Mounira
Picture:
Rola Razik and her husband’s mother Mounira

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They told Sky News that flights were being canceled and prices were skyrocketing. Rola said: “It was overwhelming, very emotional, very stressful. How can you fit your whole life into one case when you’re in your eighties?”

After their reunion, Mounira told Sky News: “Thank God we are safe. We feel sorry for those left behind who lose their lives, children. There are so many people there.”

Another woman, Solange, said she was waiting for her 13-year-old son Ali and felt “destroyed, angry, sad, disappointed and helpless” by the events in Lebanon.

Solange, whose son returned from Beirut
Picture:
Solange, whose son returned from Beirut

She added: “We’ve been fighting this for years, and now our children are fighting it, and we fear our grandchildren will be fighting it too.”

“I want the British government to take into account the humanitarian situation in Lebanon as a country.”

Kinda Alaissami also said her father, a Syrian in his 70s, took a taxi to Beirut airport and saw “bombs exploding all around, so it was very scary, a terrible night.”

It comes as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed after Israeli airstrikes in Beirut on Friday along with other group commanders.

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The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement: “Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world.”

Hezbollah said it would continue fighting after Nasrallah’s death, adding that it had fired rockets at sites in northern Israel.

While Israel stressed it was a “precise” attack, preliminary figures from Lebanon’s health ministry said at least six more people were killed and 91 injured.

According to Iranian state media, Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, was also killed in the Israeli attacks on Beirut.