As attacks by the Lebanese Hezbollah movement against Israel continued, on Monday, Canada asked its residents to avoid all non-essential travel to Lebanon.
Ottawa updated its travel advice for the country on Sunday evening and now suggests that Canadians avoid all non-essential travel there due to the conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip — and which threatens to take on a regional dimension, experts fear.
In recent days, deadly clashes have increased between the Hezbollah movement and the Israeli army on the border with Lebanon, leaving around ten dead on the Lebanese side – including a journalist and two civilians – and two Israeli victims. Again on Monday, Hezbollah, which is both a political party and an armed militia, claimed responsibility for attacks on five Israeli posts located along the border. Israel then responded overnight from Monday to Tuesday by striking “Hezbollah terrorist targets in Lebanon,” the Israeli army said. on social networks.
“If the armed conflict escalates, commercial means of leaving the country could be affected. The ability of the Government of Canada to provide consular services during an active conflict, including the evacuation of citizens, may be limited,” mentions the Canadian government website.
The latter asks its residents in particular to avoid going to the southern suburbs of Beirut, as well as to areas located south of the Litani River, near the Lebanese-Israeli border.
“Canadians who are in Lebanon should consider leaving while commercial flights remain available,” wrote on the social network the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly.
The latter also spoke with the Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, with whom she discussed on Monday “the disastrous humanitarian situation in Gaza” and their common concerns regarding the repercussions that the conflict between Israel and Hamas could have on Lebanon. “I reiterated the need for de-escalation and the importance of preventing a wider conflict in the region,” the minister said on social networks.
With the Lebanese Prime Minister @Najib_Mikati, we discussed the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and our concerns for Lebanon. I reiterated the need for de-escalation and the importance of preventing wider conflict in the region.
— Mélanie Joly (@melaniejoly) October 16, 2023
Mélanie Joly is not the only elected official to fear a widening of the Hamas-Israel conflict through Lebanese Hezbollah. “To each of my interlocutors, I said that they had the responsibility and the capacity to prevent Lebanon from being dragged into a spiral from which the country would not recover,” the head of the French diplomat, Catherine Colonna, who traveled to Lebanon in the hope of contributing to an easing of tensions in this neighboring country of Israel.
To each of my interlocutors, I said that they had the responsibility and the capacity to prevent the #Lebanon not be drawn into a spiral from which the country would not recover. pic.twitter.com/FEorBSu3jb
— Catherine Colonna (@MinColonna) October 16, 2023
A very real risk
In the opinion of two international policy experts, Canada’s decision to ask its residents to avoid all travel to Lebanon was necessary given the tense context in which the actions of the Hezbollah movement are plunging the country. Canada has also evacuated around 1,200 of its nationals from Israel aboard around ten military flights so far. Some 21 Canadians also left the West Bank by bus to Jordan.
“The main interest of the Canadian government, at this point, is to repatriate Canadians [qui se trouvent] in the Palestinian Territories and Lebanon,” says Thomas Juneau, associate professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. The “most possible scenario in the event of regionalization of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be for it to start with Lebanon,” he maintains.
Such a scenario is particularly likely to arise if the Israeli army begins a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, in the opinion of the two experts consulted. The Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, also mentioned Monday in a televised address that a “preventive action” could occur “in the coming hours” in Israel on the part of the “resistance front”, which includes the Lebanese Hezbollah, in response to the bombings carried out in the Gaza Strip.
If an escalation of the conflict occurs, however, it will not be because of Hezbollah, but rather “Israeli policy”, which has created several enemies for the Jewish state in the region in recent years, notes the retired professor from the Department of sociology from the University of Quebec in Montreal and specialist in conflicts in the Middle East Rachad Antonius. Israel, he recalls, has been bombing Syria “regularly” since 2011. “Now, will regional actors want to get involved in this? [la guerre Israël-Hamas] ? It will depend in part on what will be done in Gaza,” continues the expert.
A heavy toll
As of Monday evening, the Palestinian authorities reported more than 2,750 deaths in the Gaza Strip in nine days, the majority civilians, including hundreds of children. Hamas attacks in Israel have left around 1,400 dead. The Gaza Strip also faces a glaring lack of waterelectricity and medicine due to the siege imposed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for a week.
However, “the more the civilian victims in Gaza rise, the more there is international pressure for Israel to stop” bombing the Gaza Strip, notes Thomas Juneau. The support of several Western countries for Israel could thus weaken in the coming days, the expert foresees.
NDP MP Heather McPherson burst into tears Monday afternoon in the House of Commons while raising testimonies from civilians who are experiencing the horror in Gaza. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for his part, reiterated the Canadian position of support for Israel and denunciation of the terrorist group Hamas. He nevertheless insisted on Canada’s commitment to international law and called for a humanitarian corridor to Gaza.
“Even war has rules,” recalled the Liberal leader. We will always fight for the rule of law, no matter the circumstances. »
The leader of the opposition, Pierre Poilievre, for his part repeated that Hamas is a “cult of death”, emphasizing the savage nature of the attacks targeting innocent Israeli civilians. However, he alluded to the crisis plaguing the Palestinian side, arguing that “all life, [qu’elle soit] Palestinian, Israeli, Jewish, Muslim, Christian or other, is precious and of equal value.” “We must all avoid the suffering of innocent people. »
With Boris Proulx and Agence France-Presse