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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am.

When Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in Beirut over the weekend, Michelle Dimasi felt the blast from her apartment.

Michelle is an Australian journalist and she’s been in the city for a few months, working there.

Now, as Israeli airstrikes continue, she is preparing to leave Lebanon, likely by plane.

But for a million people who could be forced to flee their homes, that calculation of where to go and how to get out is much more complicated.

Today, Michelle Jasmin Dimasi on the reality of life in Lebanon right now and why thousands of people, including Syrian refugees are fleeing back into Syria.

It’s Tuesday, October 1.

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RUBY:

So Michelle, first of all, thank you so much for speaking with me today.

Beirut is right now experiencing some of the heaviest airstrikes that we've seen from the Israeli army in recent years. So tell me what it's like to be there on the ground right now.

MICHELLE:

Yeah. Right now, the situation's pretty tense. Everyone's really quite panicked and worried about what is going to happen. Many people are fleeing the country at the moment. So overall, the situation is, is pretty dire. It’s one of the largest mass displacements that Lebanon's ever seen.

RUBY:

And so when you talk to people, in Beirut right now, what is the tone of those conversations and what's the feeling?

MICHELLE:

So most people are saying they're very, very afraid right now. They don't know what their future holds. People have, you know, really bad memories of what happened in 2006 when there was a ground invasion in the south of Lebanon.

But after the pager attacks, that happened a week and a half ago. People, quite traumatised from that as well. You know, that was something that had never, ever happened before in Lebanon and anywhere in the world.

So I think the unpredictability of the situation is adding to a lot of the panic. And not to mention that on Friday night, Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was assassinated.

Audio excerpt — News Reporter:

“Hezbollah has confirmed the death its leader Hassan Nasrallah.”

MICHELLE:

It reverberated through all of the city. And when that happened, you know, I was even here in my apartment, I could feel that the whole house shook. And, we all ran outside. When I got outside, I could see all my neighbours on the balcony, and everyone was just thinking what had happened.

RUBY:

And last week, the Australian government told Australians in Lebanon to leave.

Audio excerpt — Penny Wong:

“So I would again say to any Australian in Lebanon, please leave. Please leave by whatever means are available whilst Beirut airport is still open.”

RUBY:

Can you walk me through what their advice was and what help is being offered?

MICHELLE:

Yeah. So there's over 15,000 Australians here in Lebanon. So the first advice was please leave. While there are commercial airlines, accessible to leave. And then, what we've seen now is, you know, over 30 airlines have actually cancelled operations here. So really, all that's left is a local carrier, Middle Eastern Airlines, and the flights are completely booked out. You know, yesterday when I called Middle Eastern Airlines, they said there is not a flight anywhere until the 15th of October.

So yesterday when the email was sent out by the Australian embassy, from their consular section, it was saying please take the last commercial flight. But that's obviously very challenging for people right now. They said that, you know, they're working with airline carriers to make more seats available and that people should be ready to go should that happen.

We're not at a point yet where there's evacuation flights taking place. And also the other advice was, try to take a ferry. There's a ferry leaving from Tripoli in Lebanon to Turkey. As another means of, of transportation. But the advice is very clear right now that to leave the country while the airport is still open.

RUBY:

And so what does all of that mean for you? Michelle, what are you planning on doing?

MICHELLE:

Yeah, look, I've been here as a journalist all summer. For me as well. I think it's time to leave this week. I'm making my own plans to exit the country as well. You know, it's a really sad situation to be in, and, you know, I'm someone who, it's privileged enough that I can leave. But, you know, right now, there's thousands of Lebanese people that cannot leave. And Lebanon is home to, you know, over 1.5 million Syrian refugees as well. So, you know, these are people that cannot necessarily easily leave the country. But for me, as a Westerner, I will make plans to leave very soon.

RUBY:

After the break - Michelle takes us to the border where thousands of Syrian refugees are fleeing back into Syria.

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RUBY:

Michelle, in the last couple of days you’ve been at the Lebanon/Syria border speaking with people trying to get out of Lebanon. Can you tell me about your journey there?

MICHELLE:

Yeah. So the journey from Beirut to the border at a border town called Messina, took us, me about 1.5 hours drive on that day.

Cars were banged up, you know, in very, very long queues.

People were waiting for hours, if not into days to cross into the border. So it was extremely chaotic. There was, a sense of, you know, panic and anxiety in the air about what was going to happen and people didn't want to leave.

But, you know, there was just a mass migration of people. Over 30,000 people have crossed into that border at the moment.

People were going with their very few belongings that they had. And yeah, UNHCR has stated that 80% of them are Syrians. So Syrian refugees that are returning, which is the first time we've seen this reverse flow of migration back into Syria. Since the war there, and around 20% are Lebanese.

Audio excerpt - [Car horns beeping]

Yeah. So when I was there, it was a case of basically two border crossings. Right? There was a formal one which Lebanese were able to go through with their passports. And then for Syrians, many of them don't have passports, they're undocumented. So what they were doing, they couldn't actually go through the legal way of the crossing that was using an irregular route. People were basically paying, but I would say, you know, a smuggler of sorts, to transport their belongings in cars that were going through. So there were empty cars going through, and then people were taking an irregular route, by foot and having to walk, you know, at least a kilometre, through this border crossing, with no passports.

RUBY:

And what did they say to you when you asked them about their situation at the moment?

Audio excerpt - [Najib speaking in Arabic]

MICHELLE:

So there was a mixture of Syrians and Lebanese people there that I did meet. I spoke to one Palestinian man, a man called Najib, and he was there with his young family.

Audio excerpt - [Najib speaking in Arabic]

MICHELLE:

He'd escaped the bombings in Tyre. That had taken place. And he actually was, a Palestinian refugee that had been living in Syria. And then he had fled the Syrian war and had come to Lebanon. And now he was actually having to flee back to Syria.

He was saying, you know, we, we want to live. We want to live.

Audio excerpt - [Najib speaking in Arabic]

Audio excerpt - [Mahlia’s speaking in Arabic]

MICHELLE:

I also met with another lady, Mahlia, who was there with her five children.

Audio excerpt - [Mahlia speaking in Arabic]

MICHELLE:

She'd come from Baalbek, which had also experienced bombardments. And she said that there was a bombing going on all around her homes. So she'd taken her five kids across the border. And she was saying that she was hoping that the war would only go for two weeks, but she said she didn't know what was going to happen. And her life was really quite unstable right now.

RUBY:

And so can you tell me a bit more then, for those who are unable to leave Lebanon right now, what is life like at the moment.

MICHELLE:

Yeah. So right now, if you go, you know, walk down to downtown Beirut, you will see a lot of people sleeping in, in the parks, on the streets. People have got pieces of styrofoam that they're using, as, you know, makeshift beds and shelters. So there's really nowhere to go. People are sleeping in their cars and, you know, across the country, right now, most of the schools are closed. So the schools have actually had to convert into emergency shelters.

The other day I went to one of the emergency shelter schools in Bir Hassan, here in Beirut, and many Lebanese had come out to volunteer.

Audio excerpt — Volunteer:

“I started yesterday, I have spent 5 hours here, maybe more than that. They need an extra hand, so I am helping out.”

MICHELLE:

I think people are actually wanting to keep busy right now because of just the stress and the worry. So at the emergency shelter, I spoke to Lebanese, people including women and even young, teenage girls who were all in the kitchen cooking. They were preparing like over 2000 meals a day to go out to this school. Those people are sheltering in the school. And yeah, there were volunteers actually coordinating games for the kids. We've seen cases of Lebanese opening up their homes to people that are being displaced. There's WhatsApp groups that are running, you know, for people that might need to find a home to stay in.

So, you know, in amongst what is a really pretty sad backdrop. There's people that are actually trying to make a difference here and, and do whatever they can support, other people that have been displaced.

Audio excerpt — Volunteer:

“I am feeling good that I am able to help. And hopefully things will get better soon, we have high hopes inshallah.”

RUBY:

And last week the IDF said that it was preparing for a possible ground invasion of Lebanon. So how is the country preparing for that possibility?

MICHELLE:

Well, right now we have a caretaker government. So that's actually probably make things a lot more complicated. But after the pager attacks and this ongoing bombardments, you know, hospitals are already at full capacity. So this is really, really concerning as to how that would be able to manage more mass casualties. So, you know, it's really unclear how they're going to manage this situation.

Just in the early hours of this morning today, there was another strike, which was actually in central Beirut. We haven't seen that before. This is the first time it's happened.

And people are hearing that the Israeli troops are on the border right now in the south, and that it's likely that a ground invasion will happen. So this is really causing a lot of distress for people.

RUBY:

Well thank you for taking the time to talk to me. And yeah I wish you the best for the next few days and weeks.

MICHELLE:

Thanks so much Ruby. It was nice to speak with you as well. Thank you.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today,

Home Affairs minister Tony Burke has threatened to cancel the visas of anyone ‘inciting discord’ in the community.

The comments come after protests across Australia against Israeli attacks on Lebanon where small groups of people in attendance carried Hezbollah flags.

The federal opposition is calling for police to charge anyone identified to be holding the Hezbollah flag.

And, the man jailed for kidnapping a four year old girl from a campsite in Western Australia has lost an appeal against his sentence.

Terence Darrell Kelly was attempting to have his 13 year sentence reduced, for the abduction of Cleo Smith from her family’s campsite in 2021, which sparked one of the biggest police searches in WA history.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am. See you tomorrow.

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