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Before war engulfed Lebanon, the Princess 2010 yacht was a symbol of leisure, cruising along the coast with passengers paying $600 each to enjoy its 24-meter luxury. According to a report on The Guardian, now, the $1.3 million vessel serves a starkly different purpose—ferrying desperate families from Beirut to Cyprus, swapping champagne for hastily packed suitcases.
Since Israel launched an intense bombing campaign across Lebanon on September 23, the yacht has made around 30 trips, according to Khailil Bechara, a broker arranging boat transport to Cyprus. "The trips are fully booked," Bechara said. At $1,800 per person, the escape isn’t cheap, but demand is soaring as residents seek to flee the escalating conflict.
Israel’s military offensive, which began amid rising tensions with Hezbollah on October 8, has claimed nearly 2,000 lives and displaced over a million people, said Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati. Explosions rocked Beirut’s main airport early Friday, leaving only national carrier Middle East Airlines flying out, and seats on departing flights are scarce. Embassies have chartered private flights for their citizens, while Greece dispatched a military transport plane to evacuate 60 Greek and Cypriot nationals.
Many cannot afford the yacht’s steep price or don’t have the necessary visa for Cyprus. Sahar Sourani, a 33-year-old NGO worker, scrambled to evacuate her family after an Israeli airstrike leveled a building near their home in Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing 45. Unable to afford boat passage, her family plans to cross into Syria and then take a flight from Jordan to Oman, where her sister lives.
The crisis has pushed more than 300,000 Lebanese to cross into Syria in the past 10 days, but Israel bombed the Masnaa border crossing on Friday, claiming Hezbollah was using the route to smuggle weapons.
Amid the chaos, people like Rasha Jabr, a 39-year-old humanitarian consultant, are fighting to escape. Jabr struggled to secure a flight for her daughter, set to start university in Germany. As they packed their car on Thursday, Israeli missiles struck near their Beirut home, coating them in black dust. Jabr’s plane to the UAE took off under the shadow of ongoing airstrikes. “I’m more fortunate than others because I have the option, but there’s a feeling of hidden guilt,” she said.
For now, the luxury yachts once known for leisure continue to offer the wealthy an escape from war, while thousands of others remain trapped in Lebanon, hoping for a way out.
[Information sourced from The Guardian]
