Foreign Secretary David Lammy has urged British nationals in Lebanon to “leave” immediately and warned that the situation in the country “could deteriorate rapidly.”
In a statement to Parliament, Lammy confirmed that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had “chaired a COBRA meeting this morning” and that he was working with Foreign Office officials to “make sure we are prepared for all scenarios.”
However, he warned that “if this conflict escalates, the government cannot guarantee we will be able to evacuate everyone immediately … History teaches us that, in a crisis like this one, it is far safer to leave while commercial flights are still running. Rather than running the risk of becoming trapped in a warzone.”
Lammy’s statement to Parliament came in the aftermath of a Hezbollah rocket attacks into northern Israel, one of which struck a football field and killed 12 people, mostly children in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights.
The Foreign Secretary told the House of Commons, “I extend my deepest sympathies to their families and to the Druze community as they grieve for their loved ones. The Government is unequivocal in condemning this horrific attack and calling on Hezbollah to cease their rocket strikes.”
Around 60,000 Israelis have been forcibly displaced by near-constant Hezbollah rocket fire since October 7 and over 40 Israelis have been killed.
Lammy said that the government supported “Israel’s right to defend itself in line with international humanitarian law.”
He described the hostilities on the Israel-Lebanese border as “one aspect of the crisis in the Middle East” and condemned what he called “malign Iranian activity” in supporting “Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and other groups whose actions destabilise the region and who show scant regard for the death and destruction this causes.”
The government, he assured MPs, “is committed to working alongside our partners to counter Iranian threats.”
The Foreign Secretary repeated calls for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and told parliamentarians that “a ceasefire would not only alleviate the suffering in Gaza and secure the hostages’ release. It would also reduce tensions across the region, helping to prevent an escalatory cycle in Lebanon.”
