On Thursday, Sarah* and her family were packed, checked in to their flight and ready to travel to Lebanon to surprise her mother and sister who are already there.
But just as they were about to board, they were informed the flight had been cancelled. They had no choice but to go back home again.
Sarah, a 27-year-old solicitor and mother of one who asked to be anonymous, says she was devastated.
“I just felt numb when they told us. We had everything paid for and booked for a six-week trip, and now we are just stressed and waiting, hoping we can still go.”
The group was told the Beirut-Rafic Hariri international airport had closed in light of tensions along the border with Israel escalating.
But while Sarah calls it a “dire situation”, she’s still determined to go to her “home country” as soon as she can.
She’s so far refused to unpack her luggage and has been praying her rescheduled flight on Sunday goes ahead without a hitch.
“It’s my home country, and we have always intended to go there as a family. My mum and sister are there, and they actually on the ground, they’re out every day having fun and partying.
“I am only worried about getting stuck, particularly with my one-year-old. But you hear all the time that our country is described as a war zone and we have family there saying something completely different.”
It comes after Israel and Hezbollah traded strikes across the border and as violence and the threat of escalation hangs over the region.
For Noor Ibrahim a 23-year-old medical student, the escalations made her rethink her upcoming trip.
She was due to see her family in south Lebanon for the first time in five years but, as circumstances deteriorated, decided to cancel the trip.
“There’s just too much instability,” she says. “There’s a lot of anxiety, even if something’s not happening, it’s just the anticipation that something might happen.”
“It’s variable, some people will tell you that it’s a terrifying situation and they just live in fear, and the smallest noise will scare them and others will tell you that there’s nothing happening.”
Ibrahim says there’s a strong discrepancy between experiences in the north and the south of Lebanon – along the border with Israel.
“Lebanon can be quite fragmented, the south tends to be hit more than the north. I have friends that are in [the] north right now and they’re having a good time and they don’t intend on coming back.”
“But escalations in the south have been ongoing since October and thousands of people have been displaced. People that have family in the south, or people that are from the south, are very devastated by it.”
The Australian government this week stepped up its warnings against travelling to Lebanon as fears of a broader regional war escalated. The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, warned in a video message on Wednesday:
“Now is not the time for Australians in the region to wait and see what happens. Now is the time to leave.”
Officials are particularly worried that Beirut airport could stop operating at short notice, which would complicate efforts by the Australian government to help its citizens get home.
The assistant minister for foreign affairs, Tim Watts, told ABC TV a large-scale evacuation would be “vastly more complex than the situation we confronted” in the 2006 war in Lebanon.
“Many Lebanese Australians might be saying, ‘I’ve heard this before’, well can I just say to them: don’t push your luck. Don’t wait and see how this turns out. The time to leave is now,” Watts said.
“There are commercial options available. Please take them up. Don’t look back in a month’s time and regret not having taken that option now.”
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, repeated those calls on Friday while reiterating that his government was seeking “de-escalation” in the region.
“We want to see a ceasefire, we want to see hostages released, we want to see a de-escalation, we want to see moves towards a two-state solution, where Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security and stability and prosper into the future,” he said.
Transport engineer Sam Youchaa, is due to travel to Lebanon next week and has no intention of cancelling his plans.
“The Lebanese mentality is to stay calm and not freak out. If Australia faced some of this violence, the whole country would freak out and shut down. But in Lebanon, it’s part of everyday life.”
He says he would only cancel his trip if either the airport in Beirut was bombed, or if there was an invasion of Lebanon. Outside those two options, nothing will stop him.
“Lebanon has a special place in my heart and my father who lives there hasn’t met my one-year-old daughter.”
*Name changed for privacy
