Brigadier-General Louis Lapointe of the Canadian Armed Forces, in the Wolseley Barracks at the UN-controlled buffer zone in Nicosia, Cyprus, on Nov. 11.Yiannis Kourtoglou/The Globe and Mail
Ottawa is still urging Canadian citizens in Lebanon to leave the country while Beirut’s airport remains open, but it has developed an emergency evacuation plan that involves hundreds of soldiers in case the Israel-Hezbollah war overwhelms the small country.
In an interview in Nicosia, the Cypriot capital, Brigadier-General Louis Lapointe, commander of the high-readiness 1st Canadian Division, said Operation Globe is detailed, was developed over many months and includes several scenarios, including mass evacuations by air and sea. “Our plan is really robust, but the best plan is to leave Lebanon right now,” he said.
Israel invaded southern Lebanon at the start of October and has hit Hezbollah targets throughout the country, including the area immediately surrounding Rafic Hariri International Airport in south Beirut – the only civilian airport in operation – central Beirut itself and the Bekaa Valley along the border with Syria.
Some 45,000 Lebanese Canadian citizens live in Lebanon, of whom fewer than half are registered with Global Affairs. Only about 1,300 have left on flights to Turkey or European Union countries on Middle East Airlines seats blocked off by Ottawa, Canadian officials say. MEA, owned by Lebanon’s central bank, is the only airline still offering scheduled flights from Beirut airport.
A few Lebanese Canadians who left last month have returned to Lebanon, apparently under the possibly mistaken belief that a ceasefire would soon be negotiated.
Smoke billows after Israeli air strikes in Beirut, Lebanon, on Nov. 13.Hassan Ammar/The Associated Press
Brig.-Gen. Lapointe said a “few hundred” Canadian soldiers, most of them in Cyprus, some in Lebanon and Israel, have worked on Operation Globe and are ready for a possible mass evacuation. “We are the safety blanket,” he said.
He would not reveal the precise numbers, but Canadian officials who were not authorized to speak to the media told The Globe that as many as 400 soldiers are involved.
Global Affairs started forming evacuation plans with the Canadian military after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Shortly after that attack, which killed about 1,200 Israelis and citizens of other countries, 1,650 Canadians and their family members were evacuated from Israel on 19 military flights from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport. Several dozen Canadian citizens in Gaza and the West Bank were also evacuated.
Brig.-Gen. Lapointe said government and military officials were keen to avoid a repeat of the evacuation in 2006, when Iran-backed Hezbollah militants and Israel fought a 34-day war. During that conflict, Israeli missiles hit all three runways at Beirut’s airport, rendering it inoperable and triggering a chaotic exodus of Canadians by sea. Ferries took about 16,000 Lebanese Canadians to Cyprus. “After that, we realized we needed a co-ordinated evacuation plan with our allies, including the British and Americans,” he said.
He declined to go into details about the plan, but said “ships have been booked” that would take evacuees to Cyprus. Another option is flights using C-130 Hercules planes or CC-150 Polaris jets, a military version of the Airbus A310 passenger jet. Runways in northern Lebanon, such as those used by the Lebanese military, are also being assessed for possible evacuation flights.
An evacuee holds a child as Turkish citizens evacuated from Lebanon disembark from the TCG L402 Bayreaktar Turkish war ship after its arrival at the southern Turkish port of Mersin, on Oct. 10.OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images
Departures by sea are already under way from Lebanese ports, though none of them are being co-ordinated by the militaries of Western countries.
In Beirut, yacht captains are offering passage to the port of Ayia Napa on Cyprus’s extreme southeast coast, a journey of five or six hours. Ali Nehme, a Lebanese captain and chief executive officer of Beirut’s True North Yachting, told The Globe last month that he has access to 30 yachts, each of which can carry a dozen passengers.
The one-way fare is about US$2,500, and some Lebanese who fear the Beirut airport could get bombed at any moment are making the journey. Mr. Nehme said some embassies have signed contracts with him for possible evacuations, though he would not identify which ones.
Some Lebanese are taking ferries or converted cargo ships from the port of Tripoli, which has not been bombed, to Turkey, a journey of about 13 hours.
Brig.-Gen. Lapointe said the Canadian soldiers and Global Affairs officials on Cyprus are working with the government of the Republic of Cyprus on the evacuation plans (the Turkish, northern part of the island is not involved in the plan). “We have to collaborate with Cyprus so as to not overwhelm the island if there is an emergency evacuation from Lebanon,” he said.
Evacuation flights currently booked by Canada on Middle East Airlines permit Lebanese Canadians to stay in Cyprus for only 48 hours before they must leave for Canada or elsewhere.