(10 Oct 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++NIGHT SHOTS++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Beirut, Lebanon – 9 October 2024
1. Various of Turkish military personnel registering evacuees
2. Wide of Abir Gokcimen and her family getting their baggage scanned
3. Baggage being scanned
4. SOUNDBITE (Turkish) Zehra Cibbin, 46, Turkish evacuee:
++SOUNDBITE OVERLAIDS SHOT 5++
"It’s indescribable. They bombed the street below our house. From that moment on, it was over for me, I said I didn’t want to stay in Beirut anymore. From that moment on, Beirut was over for me."
5. Various of evacuees getting off bus
6. SOUNDBITE (Turkish) Zehra Cibbin, 46, Turkish evacuee:
++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND OVERLAID SHOT7++
"We will go to Turkey. We will see how things will turn out there. We did not think about anything. We ran away out of fear. We said let’s just save our lives and then the rest will come."
7. Various of evacuees before boarding ship ++NIGHT SHOT++
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Abir Gokcimen, Turkish evacuee:
++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND OVERLAID SHOT 10-11++
“Yes, we are feeling more safe. We are going now with the ship to Turkey, to Mersin (province). (I) Hope this war will end soon because we left our family there (in Lebanon), I left my husband there. So, (I) hope to come back soon.”
9. Wide of Gokcimen passing security control to board ship
10. Various of Turkish soldiers waiting outside ship
11. Wide of TCG Bayraktar docked at Beirut port and Turkish soldiers waiting around the ship
STORYLINE:
Over 2,000 Turkish citizens and some foreign nationals started boarding a military ship docked in Beirut late Wednesday which was sent to take them out of Lebanon amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes.
Zehra Cibbin, an ethnic Arab from the southeastern Turkish city of Mardin who lives in Beirut with her Lebanese husband, got off a bus packed with the other evacuees, her two children in tow and luggage in hand.
“It’s indescribable. They bombed the street below our house. From that moment on, it was over for me, I said I didn’t want to stay in Beirut anymore,” said Cibbin, 46.
Cibbin said they decided to leave Beirut out of fear for their lives, putting no thought into what will happen when they arrive in Turkey.
She spoke to The Associated Press before getting in line to board the TCG Bayraktar amphibious landing vessel, which along with the TCG Sancaktar will take on evacuees.
They are part of a six-ship convoy including escorts that set sail from the southern Turkish port of Mersin early Wednesday, transported 300 tons of humanitarian supplies, including food, hygiene kits, kitchenware, tents, beds and blankets.
Besides the Turkish citizens, people from Bulgaria, Romania and Kazakhstan were among those who applied to evacuate on the ships. Officials did not provide numbers.
The Associated Press was the only non-government media invited aboard the ships to cover the evacuation operation.
Hundreds lined up before the Bayraktar as Turkish soldiers and sailors checked the evacuees’ passports and their luggage was examined by metal detectors and drug-sniffing dogs before they were allowed to board
Another Turkish citizen waiting with her family was Abir Gokcimen, who said she left her extended family and husband in Beirut and hopes the war that spread to Lebanon will end soon. She hopes to come back to Lebanon as soon as the danger passes.
The journey back to Mersin is expected to take about 10 hours.
Turkey’s government plans to organize more sea evacuations if necessary and is contemplating charter flights to repatriate citizens.
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