Rhino: Agencies – A growing number of countries evacuated their nationals from Beirut on Thursday as Israel intensified its bombardment of the Lebanese capital and governments around the world urged their citizens to leave.
Israel pushed its troops into southern Lebanon after two weeks of intense air strikes, in a simmering conflict that has drawn in Iran and threatens U.S. involvement.
Israeli forces pounded the heart of Beirut on Thursday, after Israeli forces suffered their heaviest losses on the Lebanese front in a year of clashes with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group.
Dozens of Greeks and Greek Cypriots boarded a Greek military plane at Beirut airport, many of the passengers were children clutching teddy bears and school bags. Some children played with glow sticks and others fell asleep on their parents’ laps as the plane left the smoky city.
The plane disembarked 38 Cypriots at Larnaca airport in Cyprus, about 200 kilometers west of Lebanon, and then resumed its flight to Athens, where it disembarked 22 Greeks.