Türkiye evacuates over 960 people from Lebanon

By Gokhan Celiker and Mehmet Sah Yilmaz

ANKARA (AA) — Türkiye on Thursday evacuated more than 960 people from Lebanon, according to diplomatic sources.

Turkish ships evacuated a total of 966 people from Lebanon, including 878 Turkish nationals, 24 citizens of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), and 64 of their immediate relatives, sources from Türkiye's Foreign Ministry said.

Nearly 1,900 Turkish citizens in Lebanon have requested their evacuation, said the sources on condition of anonymity.

They noted that 2,500 people had initially applied to the Foreign Ministry for evacuation.

Nearly 1,000 people reached the gathering points, with some deciding not to board the ships at the last moment, they added.

The evacuation efforts come as Lebanon faces massive Israeli airstrikes against what Tel Aviv claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23. The strikes have killed at least 1,323 people, injuring over 3,700 others, and displacing more than 1.2 million people.

The aerial campaign is an escalation of the year-long cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed over 42,000 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

Despite international warnings that the Middle East region was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Tel Aviv expanded the conflict by launching a ground invasion into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1.