The Australian government has drawn up plans to extract as many as 15,000 citizens from Lebanon, using ferries if need be, but is urging them to leave now of their own accord now, saying there can be no guarantees.

As Israel made good on its threat to retaliate for the murder of 12 Druze children by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah on the weekend during a cross-border rocket barrage, the Albanese government added its fears to those of the US that it could develop into a full blow conflict akin to Israel’s 2006 incursion into Lebanon.