LAST UPDATE | 4 Oct

TWO FLIGHTS HAVE lifted off from Beirut with rescued Irish citizens, it has been confirmed. 

The 24 Irish citizens left this afternoon on board the military aircraft, operated by the Canadian and Dutch governments. The second flight left at around 3.30pm today, The Journal has learned. 

It is understood that the Department of Foreign Affairs consular team based in Cairo and Dublin contacted registered citizens in recent days. It is believed that more than 100 Irish civilians are in Lebanon.  

They asked the Irish passport holders if they wished to leave the country.

Pleased to announce that two groups of Irish citizens were assisted to depart Lebanon today and are expected in Ireland over the weekend.

I’d like to thank the governments of The Netherlands and Canada for their cooperation.

More details here: pic.twitter.com/lmoTszJgl3

— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) October 4, 2024

Speaking today, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, as well as Minister for Defence, Micheál Martin said that not all Irish citizens in Lebanon wished to evacuate.

“Essentially now, all citizens who have indicated the desire to leave Lebanon have been assisted in leaving Lebanon,” Martin said.”Lots of the situation is fluid; just to explain, many of the other citizens are there for quite a long time. They have deep roots in Lebanon and are not anxious to leave at this stage, or indeed, haven’t been for quite a while.”

Martin said: “We were in constant contact with all Irish citizens in Lebanon. Not all want to leave, but these had indicated the desire to leave.”

The operation has been conducted in secrecy to maintain security, sources said the Irish operation has not been conducted on the scale of the Afghanistan or Sudan airlifts.

Sources have said that the Irish Defence Forces had the Army Ranger Wing, or Irl SOF, on standby and they had been preparing to deploy but that their services were not required in the end as the area around the Beirut airport remains safe.

It is understood that Israeli forces bombed near the airport last night – despite that the airfield is still operating. 

In 2006 during the Israeli invasion the airfield was bombed heavily and international military forces rescued civilians on landing craft from Beirut port. 

Meanwhile Irish soldiers due to return to their camp from leave in South lebanon have been told to stay away as there is no way to get them back to the Camp Shamrock located in an area near to Israeli and Hezbollah fighting. 

In a statement this afternoon the Irish Defence Forces said that the United Nations UNIFIL mission has told the 10,000 peacekeepers to not move around the area of operations along the frontier between Lebanon and Israel where there has been heavy fighting and bombings.

“The safety and security of our personnel stationed in the region remains of paramount concern to the General Staff, and we would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the families and friends of our personnel for their steadfast support throughout this deployment.

“UNIFIL HQ has instructed all battalions to limit movements with the ongoing situation. Assessments on the supply corridor north of the Litani to Beirut were made at the beginning of the escalations and it was determined that the current environment is not conducive to the movement of large convoys.

“Personnel currently on leave rotation were instructed to hold their return travel to Lebanon and remain on standby until a secure window becomes available to return them to UNP 2-45. These plans are being reviewed on a daily basis,” a statement said.