US Urges Citizens to Leave Lebanon as Regional Tensions Soar

The US government has urged its citizens to exit Lebanon as the Israel–Hamas war escalates.

People with their luggage wait at a bus stop in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona to be evacuated to a safer location, on Oct. 22, 2023. Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. citizens in Lebanon have been urged by the U.S. State Department to leave the country while commercial flights remain available, because of the unpredictable security situation in the Middle East.

“The best time to leave a country is before a crisis if at all possible,” the department said in an Oct. 27 statement. “U.S. military-assisted evacuations of civilians from a foreign country are rare.”