Photo of Natasha Feghali taken in Jouneih, Lebanon in June 2024.Supplied
Dalia Chami, a Lebanese-Canadian activist from Toronto who has been in Lebanon since mid-July, said she was a 10-minute drive away from the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh when it was attacked by an Israeli air strike earlier this week. The attack killed seven, including a senior Hezbollah commander.
The next day, she said, people were pushing through their daily lives as usual.
Ms. Chami said when she planned her latest trip to the country back in May, she knew that escalating tensions could mean she would be urged to return to Canada.
“I chose to come knowing what’s at stake but I just wanted to see my family,” she said, adding she can often go two or more years without seeing most of her loved ones.
Ms. Chami is one of an estimated 50,000 Canadians in Lebanon, including more than 20,000 officially registered with the Canadian government. Many, like Ms. Chami, are dual citizens.
Ottawa has been issuing increasingly urgent pleas for Canadians to leave Lebanon immediately, warning that they may not be able to rely on government evacuation flights if war breaks out or if the conflict expands to the point where commercial flights end. The federal government says it is nonetheless working on possible evacuation plans.
Ms. Chami said she already had plans to leave Lebanon for Jordan and Turkey in the coming weeks before returning to Canada. She’s not worried about the possibility of flight cancellations disrupting her travel plans. If flights are cancelled, she said she’s certain can drive to Jordan and go to Turkey from there without a worry.
But she’s increasingly concerned for her family in Lebanon who can’t afford or are otherwise unable to leave the country.
“We have so much trauma from all the wars that we’ve experienced but we try to make life bright and joyful,” Ms. Chami said. “Lebanese people have a lot of resilience in us.”
Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Thursday that its conflict with Israel has entered a “new phase,” as he addressed mourners at the funeral of the commander killed by the Israeli air strike. Israel alleges the commander was behind a weekend rocket attack that killed 12 young people in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, but Hezbollah has denied the charge.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has urged Canadians in the country to fly back to Canada immediately.
“If you are in Lebanon, come back home,” she wrote on X earlier this week. “If tensions escalate, the situation on the ground may not allow us to help you, and you won’t be able to leave.”
While the Beirut airport remains open, there are more than a dozen cancellations on Saturday alone. Some airlines are avoiding Iranian and Lebanese airspace and have cancelled flights to Israel and Lebanon. Ottawa issued a notice Thursday to Canadian aircraft to avoid Lebanese airspace for one month because of the risk from military activity.
Natasha Feghali, a Lebanese-Canadian educator and activist based in Windsor, Ont., was in Lebanon for a few days in mid-June. Now that she is back in Canada, she said she is worried about the well-being of her loved ones back home, including immediate family, relatives and friends.
“More and more people are changing their flights and they’re doing their best to leave as early as possible to ensure their safety,” she said.
With summer typically the peak season for Lebanese-Canadians to visit the county, Ms. Feghali said she is especially worried for those who do not have dual citizenship and will be left with no option but to stay if conditions worsen.
“I hope and pray that everyone involved is safe and there are no lives lost,” she said about the possibility of a full-scale war. “We don’t know what’s coming next, and we can only hope our families are not a casualty of war.”
As an avid-traveller, Ms. Feghali said she’s not sure if she will be travelling to Lebanon again in the near future.
“I’m a diligent citizen, so I wouldn’t put myself in a situation where it could become tumultuous,” she said, adding she might consider going to neighbouring countries instead where there isn’t an active security concern.
With reports from The Canadian Press and Reuters