Tears, Fears and Anger as Foreigners Evacuate Lebanon

As the campaign to help thousands of stranded foreigners stepped up in the ninth day of fighting in Lebanon, evacuees fleeing on ships and on roads out of the country expressed a range of emotions over their hastily-arranged departure.

"We were constantly afraid of being bombed but we had no choice," one German woman on a bus convoy to Syria told reporters. The road has been targeted by the Israelis in the past few days.

Others disembarking in Larnaca, Cyprus, expressed relief that they made it to safety.

"I am so sad to be going back to France," Zeina, 40, who was on holiday with her family said. "But I was so frightened by the first bombs. It is such a relief to be here."

Some expressed fear over those they left behind.

Dunia Shabaan, a Lebanese-German woman came to the German embassy meeting point with her young children. "We feel bad leaving our parents behind but we have to leave because our children are terrified by the sounds of the bombs," she said, crying.

"I don't know if my parents will be alive when I reach Germany."

Terror on the streets

Evacuees also described the terror on the streets of Beirut during the Israeli bombings in the past week.

"There were houses getting blown up five minutes from where we were," Samantha Bradley, a 33-year-old mother of two from central England.

Melbourne secretary Soirse Flanagan, 35, whose Middle East holiday literally went up in smoke with the Israeli offensive, admitted she was desperate to get out as quickly as possible.

"You just keep hearing bombs. It's pretty scary, it all happened very quickly and escalated very quickly."

Some expressed rage over the bombing campaign.

"I am really angry at what Israel is doing," Belgian Sigrit Hoste said. "It is a disproportionate attack -- they are killing civilians only."

Canadian Ludovic Marcotte, 29, said his ordeal under Israeli bombardment in his ancestral homeland would remain with him even when he got home to Montreal: "Being in a war zone really changes the way you look at life."

Coping as well as they can

As European and other governments struggle to cope with thousands of their nationals stuck in middle of the fighting, frustration erupted over bottlenecks.

On the Beirut docks, there were angry scenes as Westerners battled for a precious place for their loved ones, while swamped embassy staff tried to calm growing tensions.

"This is disgusting," yelled one Canadian woman at Lebanese guards preventing them from storming the seafront building where consular officials were allotting places.

Rough figures suggested as many as 13,000 people had already escaped or would be brought to safety by Thursday.

But according to figures provided by embassies and governments, up to 57,000 more foreign and dual nationals could be aiming to flee the country on the few spaces available to sanctuary, 160 kilometers away in Cyprus.

Logistical nightmare

The quickening rescue effort by so many countries was causing a logistical nightmare, with ships jostling for space in the harbor and scores of buses transporting evacuees getting snarled in traffic jams.

"They've had five days to do something, why are we stuck here," asked one man in frustration.

The sudden demand for buses and ships meant charter prices had soared 10-fold or more, and some countries suddenly found their hastily made plans turned upside down.

Australia, for instance, had chartered a Greek vessel to take 350 of its citizens out on Wednesday -- but discovered just before it was meant to dock that the ship was double-booked. Instead, some 100 of its priority cases, mainly families with young children and handicapped people, were taken to a British warship which was already loading hundreds of British citizens.

As some left, they took time to reflect on what they were leaving behind.

"God knows what will happen to this country after we leave," a Lebanese-French woman wept as she boarded a French ferry. "Are the Israelis going to kill all the Lebanese left behind?"