Americans have been told to flee Lebanon now before flights are grounded after Hezbollah threatened to escalate the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The US Embassy warned that there was “no guarantee for evacuations in crisis situations”.
The State Department issued the advisory on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday.
“The @StateDept recommends that US citizens in Lebanon depart now while commercial flights remain available due to the unpredictable security situation,” they wrote.
They said there were “available flight options at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport” linking to the website.
Americans have been told to flee Lebanon now before flights are grounded after Hezbollah threatened to escalate the conflict between Israel and Hamas
“Have a crisis action plan in place that does not rely on U.S. government support,” they continued.
“The best time to leave a country is, if possible, before a crisis.” U.S. military-assisted evacuations of civilians from a foreign country are rare.
“There is no guarantee that the U.S. government will evacuate private U.S. citizens and their family members in a crisis situation.”
A clash breaks out between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants along the border as the war between Israel and Hamas rages on in Gaza.
Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes along the border with Lebanon on Saturday as the militant Hezbollah group attacked several Israeli army posts, including one that was hit by two large rockets.
The escalation came a day after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his powerful group was already engaged in unprecedented fighting on the Lebanese-Israeli border.
He threatened further escalation as Israel’s war in Gaza with Hamas, Hezbollah’s ally, approaches the monthly mark.
Hezbollah is prepared for all options, Nasrallah explained, “and we can fall back on them at any time.”
Hezbollah said in a statement that its fighters had attacked at least six Israeli posts along the border, using “appropriate rockets and weapons.” It added that “direct hits were scored and technical equipment was destroyed.”
Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen television reported that Hezbollah fired two Burkan rockets with heavy warheads at an Israeli base called Jal al-Allam in Lebanon on Saturday.
A Lebanese security official confirmed the report of the first use of Burkan missiles.
The rockets, whose name means “volcano” in Arabic, were previously used by Hezbollah and Syrian government forces to destroy the fortifications of Syrian opposition fighters.
They are one of a number of types of rockets that the heavily armed Hezbollah has in its arsenal.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV reported that militants shot down a spy balloon that the Israeli military had deployed over the northern town of Misgaf Am.
On the outskirts of the village of Rmeish, in a rugged area along the border, an Israeli airstrike caused thick gray smoke. Artillery fire could be heard in the distance.
Lebanon’s state news agency National News Agency reported airstrikes near several other border villages, including Labbouneh and Hibarieh.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X that Israeli warplanes, tanks and artillery fired at the source of fire on the Lebanese side of the border.
It also targeted some Hezbollah weapons depots, infrastructure and posts used by the Lebanese militant group.
Hezbollah began attacking Israeli positions in the disputed Chebaa Farms area along the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in Syria on October 8, and within days the attacks expanded to include the entire border area.
On Saturday, Hezbollah said one of its fighters had been killed along the border, bringing the militant group’s total death toll since fighting began to 56.
Ten civilians, including a Portal journalist, and several Palestinian fighters were killed.
Iran-backed Hezbollah is closely allied with Hamas and concerns are growing that the regional conflict could escalate.
Nasrallah previously praised Hamas’s brutal and bloody attack on October 7, which killed more than 1,400 people, most of them Israeli civilians, and took hundreds more hostage.