By Craig Skehan and and Ed O'Loughlin in Beirut
THE Federal Government is expecting to evacuate more Australians from Lebanon after 86 stranded citizens were transported out of the war-torn country yesterday.
The Australians, travelling in a convoy of three buses, crossed into Syria yesterday evening Sydney time for a five-hour journey to the Jordanian capital, Amman.
Those rescued included members of the touring Sevan Dance Group, their parents and officials.
But thousands more Australians are desperate to leave and further road evacuations could take place as early as today.
The evacuation followed discussions with Israel, which has been conducting air strikes, aimed at minimising the dangers of the convoy accidentally being hit.
The Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer said he had spoken to Israel's Foreign Minister before the Australians left, but Israel could not guarantee the safety of those on the buses.
Syria's ambassador in Canberra, Tamman Sulaiman, said all Australians fleeing Lebanon would be safe as soon as they reached his country's border.
Mr Sulaiman said all evacuating Australians would be able to obtain entry visas at border posts. "Hezbollah does not prevent their passage or put up any obstacles to people leaving, and the only problem is Israeli shelling," he said.
The Israeli embassy in Canberra also promised to help. "We would do our utmost in order to support and supply and assist the Government of Australia in its effort to repatriate its own citizens who are stranded in Lebanon, and Israel for that matter," said the Israeli ambassador, Naftali Tamir.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, warned of the need to "balance the risk versus the opportunity" in evacuations from Lebanon. "I can assure you the Government is working overtime to help get people out, but it's difficult," he said.
Mr Downer said some Italians leaving Lebanon by bus were nearly hit by a missile. He confirmed the Government was still looking at whether a ship could be chartered to evacuate Australians from Lebanon but said this would take several days to organise. Up to 25,000 Australians live in Lebanon, including about 20,000 dual Australian-Lebanese citizens. AAP reported last night that a holidaying Australian, who gave his name only as Michael, said some Australians had died when the village of Aitaroun was bombed.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it was aware of the report but had not confirmed any Australian deaths. It asked for anyone with information on deaths to make contact.
Across Lebanon yesterday, thousands of Australians were hunkering down and wondering how or whether they should leave. Many are staying with relatives in villages or hill resorts away from the main flashpoints, unlikely to be attacked by Israeli forces.
Others, like 36-year-old Hanan Assi, of Aspendale in Melbourne, are living a nightmare. Since fighting broke out last Wednesday, she and her three young children have been trapped by round-the-clock shelling and bombing in her family village of Shehayn, near Naqoura, close to Israel's border in the extreme south of Lebanon.
Since Israeli shelling and air raid intensified last Thursday, the southern border region has been cut off from the rest of Lebanon. Israeli broadcasts have told local civilians to flee their homes or be killed as Israel carves out a new buffer zone inside Lebanese territory. But Mrs Assi said that despite the threats, few people dare to venture out into the free-fire zone.
"The Israelis are telling the people here on the radio to leave but we are afraid to go because of what happened to the people from Marwaheen, who were told to leave their village, and when they did they were killed," she said.
The day before, 20 civilians from Marwaheen, more than half of them children, died when Israeli missiles hit their convoy as they fled their homes after broadcast Israeli threats. That same evening, Sunday, another Israeli bomb killed eight Canadian-Lebanese on holidays in a nearby town. Among them were a mother and her three children.
Mrs Assi said she left Lebanon at the age of 18 and runs a milk bar with her husband, who is back home minding the business. She returned to Lebanon for a family reunion nearly three weeks ago and had been planning to stay until September with her children.
"Now I'm just looking for a chance to get out of here and go home," Mrs Assi said. "It's especially bad at night. There's no electricity so everything is dark. During the day you tell yourself that if they bomb, maybe you can go somewhere else and hide. But at night everything is dark and when the bombs hit you can see the fireballs all around you."
She said of the Federal Government: "We called them and they said, we can't do much. You have to register with the embassy, and we did that. They said, you just have to wait. "But we really want to leave, and to do that you have to pass through Naqoura, where the road runs along by the sea and there are Israeli ships shooting at any car that tries to get out."