As the conflict between Israel and Lebanon rages on, the U.S. military has launched a massive effort to evacuate more than 6,000 of the estimated 25,000 Americans in Lebanon by Friday. Meanwhile, a growing humanitarian crisis is unfolding as more than 500,000 Lebanese left their homes in search of safety from Israeli attacks, which have killed more than 200 and injured nearly 1,000.
The Bush administration remains adamant that the U.S. is not pulling out of Lebanon or closing its embassy there, even as the U.S. consulate was harshly criticized by Americans stranded in Beirut, who said officials were slow to respond to their requests to be evacuated, according to CNN.
The first boatload of American evacuees were taken to the island nation of Cyprus on Tuesday, with the State Department saying that another 1,000 were expected to leave for Cyprus on Wednesday (July 19).
Fort Worth, Texas, native Suzana Younes, 19, is one of those waiting to be evacuated. The freshman at the American University of Beirut has been staying at her aunt's house in the city's residential neighborhood of Ashrafiya since the bombs began dropping last week, and she is eager to board a ship to Cyprus on Thursday morning. "We can see the planes flying overhead from where we're staying, and we haven't slept since it began because of the noise," said Younes, who was born in the United States and has relatives in Lebanon. "We can see the smoke. It's not happening near us, but we can definitely see it."
Though she's worried about her safety, Younes said her biggest concern has been keeping an eye on her visiting 15- and 17-year-old sisters. "I didn't know this would happen," she said. "We all knew Lebanon was unstable, government-wise, but not that it would be a risk in this extremity. Since our parents went home, the hardest part is that my sisters are my responsibility ... and not knowing what is going to happen."
While Younes said part of her wants to stay in Beirut with her relatives, whom she says are "stuck here" because they don't have dual citizenship, she's also eager to get home. "My [relatives] don't have anywhere to go," she said. "It's the worst feeling ever: leaving family behind in a state of war and not knowing what lies ahead. But I'm definitely anxious to get back to my parents and put them at ease and get back to our normal lives."
For now, Younes doesn't plan to return to Beirut in the fall and plans to begin the application process for Texas Christian University when she gets home. But if things calm down, her parents said she might be able to return.
Amid the fear and chaos, Younes said she's learned a very important lesson. "People should really look at more than one perspective," she said. "I was born and raised in the States and seeing it here, firsthand, makes you get a bigger look at things and know why it's happening and learn more about the history. People should do their research and not just get their news from one outlet, but look around for other perspectives."
On the Israeli side, Ben Freed, 17, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, has found himself on the front lines of the battle, but he has no intention of heading home early. In the midst of a five-week program with the Young Judaea youth group, Freed was in Northern Israel when bombs first began falling.
"The day before [the conflict started], we had been up at the border between Israel and Lebanon, looking at these beautiful grottos and going on a hike with some Israel scouts," Freed said. "Then we heard what we believe were the first missiles landing while we were on that hike." Freed said the group was quickly whisked out of the area to Tsfat, a town farther south that hadn't been shelled in decades.
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But that evening, the first of what has so far been hundreds of shells began raining down on Haifa, so the group moved on to Jerusalem. "We've just kind of been nomadic, not knowing what each day will be like," said Freed, who returns home on August 1.
Freed, who has been to Israel several times before with family and on another youth program, said he's never been this close to the violence he's only experienced on TV before. "Being here, you really see two things," he said. "You see the actual effect on Israeli society, where everyone knows someone who has been called up from the reserves and who are headed up north.
"But at the same time, what you don't see on CNN is this scout camp we went to, where kids are going about their daily lives, laughing, playing and having fun. There are still people in the malls and on the streets. It's still a thriving place despite all the things going on."
The evacuations came as bombs continued to rain down on Lebanon, with at least 19 Lebanese civilians killed in Israeli air strikes on Wednesday that the Israeli Defense Force said were aimed at cutting off military supplies to Hezbollah (see "Israel/ Lebanon Conflict Escalates In Sixth Day Of Bombing").
Two Israelis were killed by a Hezbollah rocket that hit Nazareth on Wednesday afternoon as well, marking the southernmost strike inside Israel by Hezbollah that has resulted in casualties to date. More than 130 rockets were fired by Hezbollah into Northern Israel on Tuesday, according to the Washington Post, mainly striking Haifa and the seaside town of Nahariya, where one person was killed. The fighting has killed 27 Israelis so far, including 15 civilians. Also on Wednesday, Israeli ground forces briefly crossed into Lebanon on Wednesday for a targeted strike on Hezbollah forces.
American and Israeli officials told The New York Times that President Bush, who has defended Israel's right to protect itself, has decided to allow the Israeli offensive to continue for another week — in order to allow Israel to weaken Hezbollah's capacity to launch attacks — before trying to rein in the fighting. At that point, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to the region in an attempt to reduce tensions with Hezbollah, which Israel and the U.S. consider a terrorist organization.
The ongoing shelling of Beirut — which has reduced sections of the city to rubble — did not interrupt attempts to move Americans onto two cruise ships chartered by the U.S. government. European nations have chartered a second cruise ship that was also rapidly filling up, the Post reported.
Under oppressive heat on Tuesday, hundreds of Americans and Europeans who fled Beirut waited to board ships, many of them losing patience with the slow pace of the evacuation. "I had to come and cry at the door of the U.S. Embassy, kissing hand and foot, telling them they must let me leave," Raba Letteri, a child-care provider from Reston, Virginia, told the Post. Letteri was on vacation in Lebanon with her husband and two children. "This is the worst thing in my life."
A State Department official told the Times that Secretary Rice had decided to reverse a policy that required Americans being evacuated to sign a document promising to reimburse the government for the cost of their transport. Military helicopters were also being sent to ferry special-needs cases and ill Americans out of Beirut to Cyprus.
