‘Everything might not be OK’: Terrifying reality of war for Australians in Lebanon

Each time the sound of an Israeli airstrike reverberates across Beirut, with shockwaves rattling the windows of Manal Mandoh’s city apartment, she puts on a brave face for her children.

The Sydney-born mother tries to play it off as a door slamming or any other noise that could be mistaken for a missile. An evacuation bag packed with her family’s most precious belongings sits nearby: birth certificates, passports and keepsakes ready to be taken at a moment’s notice should an urgent warning come to leave her home.

An Australian citizen, who asked not to be identified out of fears for his family’s safety, is trying desperately to return to Sydney after fleeing Beirut during Israeli airstrikes.

But even for her eight-year-old son, the byproducts of living in a war zone cannot always be so easily explained away.

“The hardest part is putting on the brave face knowing everything might not be OK,” she told this masthead from her Beirut home.

“How much can you hide it from them? They can tell on your face that it’s not OK.”

For the past week, Mandoh, her husband, Samir Mustapha, a professor of mechanical engineering at the American University of Beirut, their 16-year-old daughter, and their sons, aged 13 and eight, have been confined to their home, too terrified to leave as Israeli attacks on the Lebanese capital intensify.

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, on Tuesday.Credit: AP

Airstrikes have not yet hit close enough to Mandoh’s home for her family to need to flee Beirut. However, a friend of hers, whose home is closer to targeted areas, was forced to leave the city during airstrikes just hours after the Israeli military assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday (Saturday AEST).

Having escaped the capital with his wife and four children last Wednesday, the man, who is an Australian citizen and holds a PhD from the University of Sydney, returned to Beirut over the weekend to collect his family’s belongings as attacks continued across Lebanon. So fearful he would be killed in the airstrikes, he fled without closing his front door.

“You could feel the buildings being crushed,” he said from a three-bedroom apartment in Lebanon’s north being shared by a dozen family members. “It was the most terrifying experience of my life.”

The man, who asked not to be identified out of fear for his family’s safety, fled with little more than blankets, pots and pans, and a portable stove.

Inside the apartment the Australian citizen and his family are sharing after fleeing Beirut.

“We are among the lucky ones. At least we have mattresses to sleep on. My son’s in-laws had only the clothes on them,” he said.

Like others in Lebanon, he is trying desperately to get his family out of the country and to the safety of Australian shores. But he is stranded, having spent thousands of dollars on flights that have been cancelled, no closer to knowing when he can leave or if his temporary haven will be targeted in an Israeli strike.

Mandoh’s relatives in Australia are desperate for her to return to Sydney, where she was born, and raised her two oldest children before relocating to Lebanon in 2014.

“They’re glued to the TV. They’re always asking me what I’m doing,” she said.

A damaged building at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.Credit: AP

Until her home is at imminent risk of an airstrike, Mandoh will leave the relative safety of her apartment only for absolute essentials.

“You can go out, but it’s the fear that a random thing could happen and you could be one of those innocent passers-by,” she said.

“This is the hardest thing about it – the not knowing what could happen if you leave the house.

“You’re just worried that they’ll strike and you just don’t know.”

Mandoh considers herself fortunate compared with the people she said have been displaced and left homeless because of the bombings.

“There are people that sleep in their cars because they’ve got nowhere to go. Most of the vacant apartments have been taken,” she said.

“People are just running out with whatever they have on them and just picking up their kids and running.

“They just pick up the children in their pyjamas and run out the door.”

Sydney barrister Mahmoud Mando, whose sister is in Beirut.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Mandoh’s older brother, Mahmoud Mando, a Sydney barrister, said anytime Israeli attacks hit civilian areas in Lebanon “indiscriminately”, he had concerns for his relatives’ safety.

For him, the past few days have been especially hard as Israel launched its invasion into Lebanon.

“Every civilian life lost is a life wasted unnecessarily, especially those of children, who are blameless,” he said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the Australian government was working with its Canadian and British counterparts to help citizens leave Lebanon. It said a number of Australians left Lebanon on commercial flights on Monday and Tuesday and that seats on flights on Thursday had been secured.

The department urged Australians trying to exit Lebanon to register through its online portal and leave the country at the earliest opportunity because of the risk Beirut’s airport could shut down.

“Australians in Lebanon should be prepared to leave quickly or shelter in place for an extended period. Make sure you have enough supplies including food, water, medicine, radio, torches and batteries. Know where your identity documents are, including your passport,” a spokesman said.

“If conditions worsen, we may not be able to assist all Australians remaining in Lebanon.”

For both families, the uncertainty of how long the conflict will rage on only adds to their fears.

“It’s quite terrifying because you don’t know how big it’s going to get and when it’s going to end,” Mandoh said.

“You just don’t know how long it’s going to be.”

On Wednesday afternoon (AEST), Mandoh’s friend was still trying desperately to secure his family’s safe return to Australia.

“We say the word ‘terrifying’ but what’s really important [to know] is the feelings you can’t transfer, the fear ... not knowing what’s going to happen in the next minute, in the next second,” he said.

“We want to get out.”

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