A British woman returning to the UK from Lebanon has said Israeli airstrikes killed five members of her family.
Sana Chamseddin’s uncle, his wife and their three daughters, all in their 20s, were killed when their home in the city of Tyre was bombed by the Israel Defense Forces, she told the PA news agency.
Two of the daughters were doctors and one was an engineer who was supposed to get married in 10 days, she said.
Chamseddin – a UK citizen along with her husband, Abbas – was arriving back at Heathrow airport, London, on Saturday with her children, two-month-old Zien and one-year-old Jawad.
Speaking of her guilt at escaping the besieged Lebanon, she said: “On Monday morning we wake up as a big bomb [hit] just beside our house, and we saw on the news that they said another round [of attacks] will start in one hour, so we didn’t take it seriously because we don’t fight – we are normal civilians.
“I was talking with my uncle over WhatsApp, he told me that it’s OK, it’s not going to bomb him, but we lost the connection when they bombed around us.
“When we arrived after 10 hours on the road we found out that he didn’t make it – me and my husband feel very guilty to come here [to England] and [leave] our family in unsafe places.”
She added her uncle “was the perfect person, he liked to live and to talk all the time”.
Her husband, biochemical engineer Abbas Chamseddin, showed PA photographs of the family and said: “Look at this smile, this is the future of Lebanon – they’re killing the future of Lebanon, look at the smile, this is what they kill.”
It comes after British nationals in Lebanon were urged to leave the country immediately as violence escalated between Israel and Hezbollah.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said on Friday night that British nationals in Lebanon should leave on the next available flight.
It added: “We are working to increase capacity and secure seats for British nationals to leave.”
British nationals in Lebanon should register their presence on the FCDO’s website to stay up to date with the latest information, it said in a statement.
On Saturday, the Israeli government said it had killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, with the Israeli Defense Forces posting on X that he would “no longer be able to terrorise the world”.
It comes after a series of massive explosions levelled multiple apartment buildings in Beirut on Friday night.
There are an estimated 5,000 British nationals and immediate family members in Lebanon. Of those, several hundred are believed to be UK single nationals.
According to the PA Media news agency, the government has successfully asked airlines to increase capacity on routes out of Lebanon, with FCDO teams in Beirut ordered to support the British consulate.
It is thought they are ready to facilitate evacuations by sea or air, which could be triggered if the security environment degrades further and British nationals are no longer able to leave via other routes.
