Cardiff Uni professor considers heading to Lebanon to get family out

A British-Lebanese professor whose family have no plans to leave Lebanon said he is prepared to go there himself and "carry" his elderly father out of the country.

Ahmed Hankir, 42, a professor in psychiatry, visited his parents in Lebanon last month and described "extremely difficult" conditions as fighting continues between Hezbollah and Israel.

Mr Hankir was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, after his parents moved from Lebanon to the UK in the 1980s, and has strongly encouraged his family, who hold British passports, to leave the country and come to England.

His mother and his father, who is in his 70s and has mobility problems, have fled their home in Sidon, south Lebanon, to drive north to the capital, Beirut, where his sister lives.

Speaking to Greatest Hits Radio, Mr Hankir said "nowhere in Lebanon is really safe" as airstrikes intensified.

"There was relentless bombardment in a densely populated, residential neighbourhood in Beirut, and the blast could be felt throughout Beirut," he said.

Mr Hankir added the situation in Beirut is becoming "increasingly precarious, volatile and unstable."

He added parents, who do not wish to be named, intend to stay in Beirut with his sister.

"They would prefer to stay, it's home, and when you live in a place for almost your entire life, then understandably you become attached to that place."

Mr Hankir told Greatest Hits Radio he would fly to Lebanon to bring them to safety himself if the situation worsens.

That is despite the UK Foreign Office advising against all travel to Lebanon, and urging all British nationals to leave whilst commercial options remain available.

He also fears a further escalation in Lebanon, after 21-day ceasefire proposed by the UK, US and other allies was rejected by Israel.

"I have a foreboding that it will continue to escalate, and that they Israel ultimately want to invade Lebanon."

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