HOBSONS Bay families are caught up in the chaos as around 25,000 Australians attempt to flee Lebanon in the wake of ongoing Israeli attacks.
The Israeli offensive coincided with summer in the northern hemisphere, a time when many Lebanese Australians visit Lebanon. Few local Lebanese families have been untouched by the conflict.
Mohammed Hawli, from Newport, said his sister’s family – including four young children – was caught up in the conflict and was desperate to get out.
Speaking last week, Mr Hawli said his family could no longer wait for the Australian Government to organise safe passage from Lebanon, and was planning to attempt the hour-long drive to the Syrian border last weekend.
The rewards of the escape plan were great, but so too were the risks, Mr Hawli said.
“There is some fear that if they take the main roads, or any roads that pass army posts, that they may be targeted.
“We’re not sure exactly what routes they will take out of there, but probably they will be forced to use the smaller roads.”
Mr Hawli, a committee member with the Newport Islamic Society, said the Lebanese community based at the Newport Mosque was mostly from northern Lebanon, near Tripoli.
“We’re much more fortunate than some of the people stuck down in Beirut or southern Lebanon but there is a lot of anxiety about them getting out.”
The Australian Government was focusing on people in southern regions closer to the Israeli border, Mr Hawli said, but there was a general feeling that it should increase efforts to evacuate Australian citizens.
Mr Hawli said it was heart wrenching for Lebanese people to see their homeland destroyed again, 15 years after a civil war ravaged the country.
“People are pretty frustrated that after years of rebuilding Lebanon now, within one week, after one incident, the country is being ruined again – the infrastructure, the economy, the beauty of the place. It’s just really sad,” he said.
Khaled El Souki also attends the Newport Mosque, and like almost every Lebanese-Australian living in Hobsons Bay, he has a family member among the Australians trying to flee Lebanon.
Mr El Souki’s brother, Rame, and his family went to Lebanon for their biennial family visit, a routine trip that has been anything but typical for the Altona Meadows family.
“When they usually go there they go out, go to carnivals, to the river and the mountains. This time they are just sitting together in a room. They can hear the bombs.”
Mr El Souki said his brother’s wife and children, the oldest of whom is just 11, had been caught up in the efforts, coordinated through the embassy, to get Australians out of the area.
“As soon as they knew there was trouble, Rame called the travel agent and said ‘I want to get out of here now’, but the agent just told him that was impossible until things improve.
“He went to a special office and put his name down and passport number.
“As soon as anything happens, the embassy will give them a call and tell them ‘Be ready at this particular time, in this particular place; a bus is coming’.
“We spoke to him the other day and he said, ‘today there is nothing, so that is a good sign’ but there is a general sense that it could change at any second,”Mr El Souki said.
Mr El Souki’s uncle, also named Khaled, said the local Lebanese population believed that the Australian Government could be doing more to get people out of Lebanon.
“They talk and talk but there is no action. They don’t want to upset Israel by putting on the pressure.
“Other countries are doing something about it. The Americans are sending helicopters, the French are sending ships to collect them. And the biggest group over there is Australian.”
“Every single Lebanese person here in Melbourne has a close relative over there, often close relatives like parents or grandparents.”
Tony Yacoub , president of the World Lebanese Cultural Union for Australia and New Zealand, said his understanding was that the situation in Lebanon would not be resolved soon.
“The situation looks like it will be at least another two weeks before the Lebanese army can be deployed. It is very dangerous situation. Nowhere is safe.”
