Saudi Arabia asks its citizens to quickly leave Lebanon amid escalating tension

Amid more and more armed clashes in the area, Saudi Arabia called on its citizens to quickly move out from Lebanese territory and to avoid approaching tense regions, the Saudi embassy in Lebanon said in a statement posted late on Friday on X, formerly known as Twitter. The West Asian kingdom did not specify which areas in Lebanon that it was advising its citizens to avoid. “The importance of adhering to the Saudi travel ban to Lebanon,” is something that the embassy stressed on in its statement. Neighbouring Kuwait also issued an advisory early on Saturday calling on Kuwaitis in Lebanon to stay vigilant and avoid “areas of security disturbances” but stopped short of asking them to leave the country, according to a statement by the Kuwaiti Foreign ministry posted on X. On 1 August, the United Kingdom also updated its travel advice for Lebanon, advising against “all but essential travel” to parts of Lebanon’s south near the Palestinian camp of Ain el-Hilweh. At least 13 people, most of them militants, were killed in fighting that broke out in the camp on 29 July between mainstream faction Fatah and hardline Islamists, security sources in the camp said. Ain el-Hilweh is the largest of 12 Palestinian camps in Lebanon, hosting around 80,000 of up to 250,000 Palestinian refugees countrywide, according to the United Nations’ agency for refugees from Palestine.