Hadi Sharqawi, 24, a Lebanese student in Italy, who had just landed at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport, embraces his mother who is about to travel to Iraq to visit Shiite Muslim holy places, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, July 30, 2024.
Seventy-one-year-old Mohammad Mokhaled, from the southern town of Jarjouh, who was waiting to pick up his daughter Tuesday, agreed. Amal Ahmadieh, 23, was leaving Tuesday to return to Qatar, where she works in a restaurant, after a vacation in Lebanon. Ahmadieh said she was leaving as originally scheduled and had not pushed up her flight due to security concerns.
Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines delayed some flights to arrive Tuesday morning instead of at night, the carrier said, “due to technical reasons related to the distribution of insurance risks.”