Australians should leave Lebanon now after two citizens killed, federal government warns

Australians in Lebanon should leave the country as soon as possible, warned acting Foreign Minister Mark Dreyfus, following confirmation that two citizens were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah said one of two Australian brothers killed in the strike on Wednesday, Ali Bazzi, was one of its fighters, which Dreyfus said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) was still investigating.

The two men, Ali and Ibrahim Bazzi, as well as Ibrahim’s wife Shorouk, died in Israeli attacks on the southern Lebanese city of Bint Jbeil. However, family and friends of Ibrahim, who was known by loved ones as Bob, said they believed he had no connection to Hezbollah and wished he had never travelled there while the conflict was still unfolding.

From left to right: Hussein Saab, Kawthar Roumie, Ali Saab, Sam and Yousef. They are all close friends of Ibrahim “Bob” Bazzi, who was killed along with his wife and brother in an airstrike on the family home in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbei.Credit: Kate Geraghty

Speaking from Melbourne on Thursday, Dreyfus said he had received confirmation from the Israeli government the two men had died, and any Australians who fought with, associated with, or gave money to Hezbollah – a listed terror organisation – would be committing a crime.

The Bazzi brothers are the first Australians confirmed as killed by Israeli air strikes in the current conflict.

The attorney-general, acting as foreign minister while Penny Wong is on leave, said the government was continuing to make inquiries about Ali Bazzi’s links to Hezbollah after the terrorist organisation proclaimed him – but not his brother – as a martyr and gave him a military style funeral.

A Hezbollah fighter kisses the coffin of Ali Bazzi, who was killed in the airstrike.Credit: AP

“We will continue to make inquiries about this particular person with whom Hezbollah has claimed links,” he said.

The Morrison government declared all of Hezbollah, not just its External Security Organisation, as a terrorist organisation in November 2021, making it an offence to be a member or to provide any form of assistance to the organisation.

Hezbollah, which dominates Lebanon’s security and political institutions, has been accused of terrorist attacks, kidnappings and smuggling weapons and explosives.

The External Security Organisation is Hezbollah’s military and security wing that operates outside Lebanon. It also has a paramilitary wing, the Jihad Council, and a political wing, the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party, which has MPs in the Lebanese parliament.

Ahmad Bazzi, pictured next to the remains of his house, which was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon. Ahmad Bazzi is the father of Ali and Ibrahim Bazzi.Credit: AP

“Any Australian fighting with Hezbollah is committing a very serious terrorist offence under the criminal code,” Dreyfus said.

Dreyfus stressed that it was “very important for Australians not to travel to Lebanon,” and said listing Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation was meant to “provide a deterrent” to any Australians assisting the organisation, “let alone fighting with them”.

Asked if there was a government response to the killing of Australians by Israeli strikes, Dreyfus said he had “made the point that there had been a travel warning not to travel to Lebanon in place since mid-October. It remains in place.”

Ali Saab holds the favourite T-shirt of his childhood best friend Ibrahim “Bob” Bazzi. Credit: Kate Geraghty

Ali Saab remembered his best friend Ibrahim Bazzi as a dedicated husband and hard worker. Speaking from their sharehouse in Rockdale, he said Bazzi arrived in Australia during the pandemic in 2021, and after a stint in hotel quarantine, started taking any labouring shift he could, working as much overtime as possible to save for his wedding and house.

The pair worked together fixing footpaths and roads for councils around Sydney and in regional NSW. Ibrahim had started taking up a leadership role and was a stickler for safety, Saab said.

Saab last saw his best friend when he dropped him off at the airport just a week ago, giving him a stern warning to be safe and wishing he wouldn’t go.

“I told Bob ‘I want you to be careful in Lebanon, it’s not safe there’ … but we never thought his house would be bombed, he had nothing to do with this conflict,” he said.

Saab said Bazzi was so excited to bring his wife to Australia after she was granted a visa, he did not want to wait any longer. In the weeks before his death Saab took trips to Ikea in Sydney to plan furniture he might buy and looked at real estate listings for houses around the Camden Valley area.

“It’s just not fair, he had nothing to do with this conflict,” Saab said.

On Thursday, a group of Bazzi’s friends gathered at the Rockdale house and told the Herald that he rarely spoke of his brother, and once said he wished they had a closer relationship. Saab’s wife Kawthar Roumie said she only learned Bazzi had a brother when she heard news of the bombing.

Roumie remembered Bazzi as an “average Muslim guy” who was not interested in talking about politics or religion. She said they never spoke about Hezbollah, and believed Bazzi and his wife were innocent victims.

Saab said Bazzi had just undergone laser eye surgery in Lebanon and was taking a night to rest in Bint Jbeil before moving on to a different village the next day.

“He took his medication that night and never woke up,” Saab said.

With Wafa Issa and Reuters

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.